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How can I choose between two excellent mouthpieces?

Author: Musikat
Date: 2017-05-21 04:51

Help! I have had a Gregory Smith C 1+ on trial for a few weeks and it is a definite improvement over my former mouthpiece that I had been playing on for over 20 years. By prior arrangement I visited Walter Grabner's shop in Illinois on Friday and, according to his policy purchased his K11* along with one of his barrels, but can have two weeks or so to return them should I decide they aren't working for me. I purchased both because my Wesley Rice barrel is a 67 mm (my old mouthpiece played quite sharp) and I am pretty much right in tune pushed all the way in with the Smith. I didn't feel that gave me enough wiggle room in colder temperatures or if my band is playing sharper.

My problem is I love both mouthpieces for different reasons.

The Grabner is very smooth. intervals are much easier and it has a nice warm tone throughout. Just through several play sessions today I am discovering that it seems to prefer a 3.5 V12 or a softer 3.5+. I am just starting to break in 3.5's so it will take a week or so to know how they sound longer-term.

When I tried the Smith with the Grabner barrel I noticed it opened up the sound quite a bit and with it, it is much more vibrant and sparkly, but the intervals aren't quite as good as the Grabner. A few notes come out more harshly than I want, but this could be a matter of "learning" the mouthpiece. It was more mellow overall with the old barrel. Through my longer trial with this mouthpiece I have found V12 3.5+ to be the sweet spot and have just gotten to the point where several are nicely broken in on it, so I clearly have more reeds to test on it that are optimized to this mouthpiece.

Overall, my own analogies of the two are the Smith sounds like a sparkly diamond and the Grabner a beautiful mellow polished stone.

I told Gregory Smith I would let him know by tomorrow and he has already been more than generous giving me extra time with it. Should I:

a. Buy the Smith, stick with my old barrel and sent the new setup back?
b. Send back the Smith and see how I feel after trying the Grabner setup for a few weeks (knowing I could have him send me another 1+ at a later date)?
c. Buy the Smith and Grabner's barrel but send back the Grabner mouthpiece? or
d. Buy the Smith and try the Grabner out for the trial period then either send it back, or end up with two mouthpieces?

Buying both will set me back by about $700 (but my birthday is next week and my wife said she would buy the second one as my present if I want). Does that seem excessive? Will I really play both (maybe the Grabner for smaller ensembles/clarinet choir and the Smith when I have to be more vibrant or have solos)? I am not a professional. I currently play in two concert bands, one much higher level than the other, and a clarinet choir. But I don't rule out someday getting my A tuned up and performing with an orchestra.

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