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Re: Viennese facings on Boehm mouthpieces?

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-01-08 23:23

Hey Mr. Barnhart,

I had gone down that path about three years ago with a Boehm clarinet and German mouthpieces. I don't know so much about the resistance being in the horn for German clarinets though. From 1984 through 1998 I played Wurlitzer Oehler system 100Cs (same as Leister and Zukovsky). The problem I had was NOT understanding the concept of a softer reed with this mouthpiece/clarinet and I sold the pair in 1998. So back to three years ago where I no longer had the Wurlitzers, I was able to achieve wonderful results with my Wurlitzer mouthpieces that I held on to (modifying a Boehm barrel to accept the larger tenon) by using either 2 1/2 strength White Master Traditional reeds, or Legere German cut strength #3.

The fact is that with a correct German approach to playing there is very little if any resistance anywhere.......you basically just blow (as Bas DeJong of Viotto mouthpiece described to me three years ago).

My initial response to trying the correct combination was that it was a bit of a joke. It felt like a beginner set-up. But I soon realized that the timbre and the dynamic contrast possible was far from a beginner sound. It took a few months to get used to the "ease" of play after years and years of feeling like I had to work at it.

I was just looking at the PlayNick website and he has a video for his "MouthPeace" product that kinda captures the affect........in a humorous way. Of course he referring more to the combination of his synthetic reeds with his mouthpieces meant for synthetic reeds.

http://www.playnick.com/UPLOAD/MOUTHPEACE_YOUTUBE.mp4

Watch to the end it gets pretty funny.

.................Paul Aviles

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