 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Chris Sereque
Date: 2023-04-05 10:36
Since retiring, I have been experimenting with longer, more closed facings. Having very little luck with 16-17 mm facing lengths, I decided to go a bit longer, and now have a Zinner A blank at 22 mm length and about .95 mm tip. Surprisingly (to me!) it plays really well using a Steuer Essex Solo 3 ½ German-cut reed as a model on the ReeDual. One advantage of this is, even with a stiff reed like the Steuer, I can play with less embouchure pressure. High altissimo notes speak very well. Does anyone have any experience with a standard German facing, which would be 28mm length, with a .88mm tip?
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Author: Micke Isotalo ★2017
Date: 2023-04-05 13:19
Hi Chris,
Playing on Reform Boehm clarinets, I've been involved in German and Austrian mouthpieces for quite long now. My current choice which I'm extremely pleased with is a Viennese Maxton Alban with an advertised tip opening of 0.864mm and a facing length of 28.5mm. It's meant for synthetic reeds, but I use it almost exclusively with cane (primarily with Pilgerstorfer Vienna 3.5, but to some extent also with Leutner Professional Wien 5 to 5+ - the Steuer Wien though I've not tried yet).
My previous mouthpieces has included such as the Playnick Brahms, their Viennese A', a German Solist M, a Viotto N1+2 plus a bunch of Wurlitzer pieces.
For me the Maxton Alban is by far superior concerning both tone (I'm aiming for such a full but yet solid and dense sound as possible), intonation, tonguing speed and air consumption - especially compared to my previous Playnicks.
I have two pieces of the Maxton Alban, one with German bore/tenon and the other one with Boehm bore/tenon (the latter as a special order, with 50 € added to the regular prices). Maxton offers two materials, "Classic" and "Flexilis", but the Classic is a bit brighter so it isn't for me.
I'm not at all for the closer, more traditional Viennese tip openings (in the range of about 0.7-0.8mm) which for me are way too restricted in loud dynamics. On the other hand, some of the more open Viennese facings (above 0.85) can be lacking the more typical, Viennese kind of sound - but not so with the Maxton Alban.
As you surely know, the very long facings of Viennese mouthpieces makes them a lot less resistant than what just the tip openings alone would indicate. For me, the Alban has a perfect balance in this regard, concerning resistance and response.
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Author: Micke Isotalo ★2017
Date: 2023-04-05 19:46
Just adding a comment about typical dimensions of "German" and "Austrian" (Viennese) facings, for those who may not be too familiar with these.
As an example, the German mouthpieces offered by Maxton has facing lengths between 15-23mm, and all of these which are for German cut cane reeds has tip openings very close to 1.0mm (some of those for Boehm reeds are larger).
All their Austrian mouhtpieces, on the other hand, has facing lenghts between 27-35mm, and the tip openings on these that are for cane reeds are 0.757-0.832mm (those for synthetics are larger, even up to 0.942mm).
When playing on these, it should of course be remembered that the longer the facing, the more intake is needed (that's at least my experience).
Also that the larger bore of Austrian mouthpieces (typically 15.4mm) doesn't work with Boehm clarinets (internal tuning probably goes crazy), nor does the tenons of German or Austrian mouthpieces fit Boehm barrel sockets.
To get a mouthpiece with Austrian facing working well on a Boehm clarinet would thus probably need a special order, with the facing being put on a Boehm mouthpiece blank (I believe that besides Maxton also at least Gleichweit offers this). On the other hand, a German bore could go well with Boehm (both typically 15.0mm), so in that case probably only the tenon of the mouthpiece or the socket of the barrel needs to be altered.
Post Edited (2023-04-06 10:52)
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Author: Chris Sereque
Date: 2023-04-05 21:10
I have a few Vandoren “D” style German mouthpieces-they tune decently, but originally the tenons were around .5 mm too long. They are easily shortened with sandpaper. I would have thought that the tenons would be too wide for a Buffet, but they fit perfectly. The facings are designed for German players who want to play with French reeds (??), but they play better with longer facings. I do my own mouthpiece work, but maybe I should actually buy a German-facing mouthpiece…
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2023-04-06 00:50
I had done an initial foray into German mouthpieces on Boehm about eight years ago. Bas DeJong sent me a Viotto N1 and a bunch of 2 1/2 strength reeds for me to try. This mouthpiece actually worked quite well on my Yamaha CSGs. So much so that I played a year or so on German mouthpieces (finally settling on Wurlitzer M3+). Bas pointed out that really the only sticking point was the larger tenon size both 1.00mm longer and 1.00mm larger in diameter. Bas had the tenon made smaller to work fine with Boehm. For the Wurlitzers, to maintain their dimensions (long story), I decided to modify a few barrels.
Fast forward to a few months ago I asked Michele Zukovsky for suggestions for some good German mouthpieces now that Zinner is gone. She mentioned both Gleichweit and Maxton (I believe they were one company until recently). I initially tried the Geichweit D4-2 with the larger Viennese bore as an experiment. One thing that I was not crazy about with the "older" German mouthpieces was that the altissimo seemed to need some lipping up. I attributed this to the longer length of these mouthpieces (smaller internal bore size but longer from bottom of tenon to tip of the mouthpiece). The D4-2 is amazing.......full stop! Firstly, there is no problem with the altissimo (and the mouthpiece is a normal length.....for Boehm). The tenon is smaller in diameter already with Gleichweit using different sized o-rings to make up whatever socket diameter you need. The length is barely millimeter longer but this does not seem to be an issue.
Unlike Micke, I have no pitch problems with the Wien (Vienna) bore at all. If I had a mouthpiece like this that plays with such authority and ability to lock in on pitch and timbre back when I had my Wurlitzers I never would have sold them........pity.
I followed my purchase of the Wien bore D4-2 with the Gleichweit German bore version. The difference is almost imperceptible (on both Yamaha CSG and Leblanc OpusII). I may though give a nod to the German bore mouthpiece which seems even more "locked in" for pitch and timbre.
I use these mouthpieces (that have a 24mm long facing and 0.97mm tip opening ) with Legere German cut reeds around 2.75 strength (the main reed I use is an eight year old reed gifted to me by Bas that never had any markings or stickers on it).
...................Paul Aviles
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