Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-02-10 21:41
Maybe I need to change with the times more than I have.
I say this because the idea that buying a mouthpiece around a reed was one never expressly considered in my training. Surely I was encouraged to find reed brands that worked with a mouthpiece that was recommended for me, and otherwise gave me success. And as a Vanoren mouthpiece and cane user for many years, maybe I have in fact sought out mouthpieces, if not at a conscience level, to match my cane, not just the other way around.
But in fairness, that was in the days where cane was the only option and synthetics had next to zero market penetration. Maybe, given the quality control that can be applied to a synthetic, we can expect far greater consistency and uniformity between 2 or more of the same brand reed/strength of a manufacturer, even over the course of production years.
And maybe with that consistency it becomes more reasonably to look at the pairing between mouthpiece and reed with a more bidirectional stance (e.g. does the reed fit the mouthpiece as well as does the mouthpiece fit the reed?)
There's no shortage of posts on the bboard suggesting that consistency between a synthetic manufacturer's brand/strength, or length of play, is neither uniform, nor enough exceeding cane so as to justify a synthetic's higher per reed cost. Conversely, many pros have switched to them, and not just because they're ready to play sans water, or work similarly in different temperature/humidity situtations.
Of course I'd like a mouthpiece that plays both cane and synthetics well, and by no means am I suggesting that whatever variation of Mr. Kuckmeier's designs is bundled by Legere fails to meet such a standard. Truth is I simply don't know.
But that said, are there basic mouthpiece characteristics, be it facing length, rail widths, tip opening, etc. that Legere (or for that matter Forestone) users tend to gravitate to?
I'd be interested in confirming which of Mr. Kuckmeier's designs is in fact part of this bundle, and what its basic attributes are.
Yes...if I may anticipate the naysayers, it's true: the player makes the sound, not the mouthpiece, and these attributes I seek are just one facet of a mouthpiece that don't truly capture its essence short of playing it. Still more, these attributes can run contrary to one another (e.g. attributes of the rails and tip opening), but it's nonetheless interesting to note if pattern exists in what mouthpieces (either maker or mouthpiece attributes) the synthetic reed playing clarinet community tends to gravitate to, if any. For example, mouthpiece maker Richard Hawkins and Legere are no strangers to one another either.
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