The Clarinet BBoard

My Behn mouthpiece experience

Author: igalkov  Date:   2019-11-02 09:33 Hi all, I’m Ilya from Yekaterinburg, Russia, I play second clarinet in the orchestra of Ural Opera Ballet theatre. I want to share my Behn mouthpiece purchase experience. Please don’t judge my English very much Behn EPIC HCV is a mouthpiece just cries out for a long-read. I put a lot of time to write it (in foreign language!), because it deserves it. PURCHASING AND REEDS. I was messaging with Brad since spring. Initially aimed at Zinner or SONO, I ended up purchasing his EPIC HCV mouthpiece recently. My first impressions was very «mixed», as I politely wrote to Brad, but no, truly it was a complete disaster! I played European Legeres exclusively at the moment, but (for me personally) they were totally misfit on EPIC. Sides of the reed actually looks like wide wings outside of the rails, the sound was enormous hissy even on my lightest Legeres. Moreover, all construction was very flat in tune (we play at A=442 to 443), so my evening performance in the pit was a battle with tune. My fault, because Brad offers an option of Legerification of the mouthpiece, but I wanted to save some money and didn’t ordered it. I think you should consider one if you want an EPIC to play Legeres exclusively. Brad recommended to try it with cane, and what for tuning concerns, he showed a great responsibility for the product he make: he offered a replacement — to make a completely new mouthpiece. I didn’t even asked for it, it was solely his own proposition. What a gentleman! I wanted it to be legerified this time. We agreed. Brad was leaving a town for some vacation, we decided to settle things down on his return. The mouthpiece was laying lonely on my table, I just looked at how beautifully it was made, and somehow came to a decision to give it another try. I found some old cane reed, put it on and blew. WOW! Just bang, head off, smoking pistol. It was AMAZING. I tried nothing like this in my life. I just knew I will never let this thing out of my hands. I immediately wrote Brad that I take all my words back and need nothing else but this exact mouthpiece. FEEL AND TONE. I tried numerous Vandorens, Zinners and D’Addarios; however, I never tried these great things of the past (like Chedevilles) EPIC should represent. For me, EPIC HCV is a piece of its own. I can’t compare it to any previous experience. I play Buffet RC Prestiges which I don’t like for they’re too stuffy, but I liked very much my previous horns, R13s of 1950s. EPIC feels like these horns with a mouthpiece I played on them, Vandoren B45Lyre. I feel freedom, like a rubber blanket dropped down from the horn. EPIC gives enormous dynamics to forte like B45L gave me, but it was 1.27 opening, and Behn is only 1.02! How in the world could that be possible? And on the piano side, I can easily start the sound from niente, just a clear sound, which was not possible on the B45L. Dynamic range is so huge, I can make whatever I want dynamic-wise, to completely hide behind the flute in pianissimo or to pierce an entire orchestra if I want to. Response is absolutely stunning, as well as articulation is. You know, «it just works». The sound is very well balanced, it’s not high-pass-filtered like BD5 and a-likes, but not a buzzer too. It’s just equalised «right» to me, and helps me to express. RESONANCE AND PROJECTION. Entire clarinet vibrates and jumps in my hands when I play on EPIC. The fun story happened a few days after, when I played a first clarinet in the concert. It was a really great sounding hall, and I enjoyed much of my sound in it, reflections was returning back to me. We did some warm-up on the stage, and I asked our flutist, «What a great hall, isn’t it? It returns sound so good!» And she answered, «You know what? I hear very clear YOUR sound returns, but not mine!». And this exact dialog repeated with a bassoonist! Truly, I considered everything that was said about resonance and added projection of Behn mouthpieces just a marketing. I’m too old to consider such things to be true. BUT THEY ARE, it’s real, and it’s clearly audible by listeners. TUNE AND IMPRESSIONS OF A MOUTHPIECE MAKER. About this part of the story I didn’t even told Brad yet — I hope he will not be mad at me very much With proper cane reeds (I use D’Addario Reserve Classic 3.0), EPIC tunes considerably higher than with Legeres, that makes it playable in 442 environment with shorter barrels… But I wanted a little more comfort, not to balancing on the edge, but to relax and let it go. I decided to bring it to our local repairman and mouthpiece maker/refacer, Vladimir Botalov, to shorten it a little on the tenon end. He made a job perfectly, ~1mm gave a huge difference in tune and didn’t sacrificed tone quality. Now my Behn EPIC is just perfect. I also asked Vladimir his impressions about the mouthpiece. He told that it is the finest work of art; to finish baffle and facing like Brad did would take DAYS of work. It’s one of the very best mouthpieces Vladimir saw. And yes, he stated that material reminds him of the very-very old vintage mouthpieces, both of structure and smell. On my question, is the $780 price of the mouthpiece would be worth it — he sad, definitely yes. Thank you for reading this long post. And my eternal gratitude to Brad for this wonderful mouthpiece.

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Re: My Behn mouthpiece experience

Author: igalkov  Date:   2019-11-03 14:43 Hi m1964, thank you! You’ve asked me a very complicated question. No one in the world knows an answer, neither me. Here in Yekaterinburg is nothing like an amateur orchestra, and I never saw anybody who plays clarinet just for fun. Guitar, accordion, saxophone, even violin, but never clarinet. «Russia is for serious», haha If you ask me, I’d say EPIC will definitely give you much more advanced experience, but how much «advanced» it would be? Will it be seven times advanced? May be, may be not. Brad Behn offers different lines of mouthpieces, he has mid-line SONOs for $350 and a discontinued Zinner line on sale for $200 with no returns. Zinner is completely not my thing, and it’s too bad for me, because if he finishes Zinners personally, with the same quality he finishes EPIC, it’s just a bargain, «grab and run». I can only advise to you to mail or call Brad personally and he will give you much more experienced answer.

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Re: My Behn mouthpiece experience

Author: igalkov  Date:   2019-11-03 15:08 Hi Ed, thank you! Now, when some time passed, I can say one serious thing. We all have an ideal mouthpiece in our minds. How it will feel and sound. The advertising always heats our imagination, plays with our desires and then we knew that this exact mouthpiece (or anything else, it doesn’t matter) will be the mouthpiece we dreamed of. And the real thing is always not. I’d watched all Brad’s interviews available. He speaks very well, very colourful, but I divided his words on 2, on 3, on 10, just because I knew these things doesn’t exist and will never be. And now, when: lighter reeds are better — check, added projection — check, vibrating resonance (of forte I actually feel my scull vibrates, it’s somewhat frightening experience) — check… It's «Pattern break», as we Russians say. It’s as close to the ideal mouthpiece I imagined as possible, so it’s scares a little. When someone tells the truth during advertising, it always scares

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