Author: kerryklari
Date: 2023-12-21 23:17
I have an old bass clarinet which I only play for fun (and not very well). The mouthpiece that came with it was awful and it was very difficult to play anything beyond the chalumeau register. I now have a couple of new mouthpieces - one is a stock Lomax that has been modified to fit, and the other was made for the instrument by Ed Pillinger. The problem is the same with both of them.
The instrument is a bit flat in the chalumeau, about right in the clarion, and a bit sharp in the altissimo. I don't know if there's much I can do about that - maybe I could compensate more if I was a better player. I pretty much accept that that's how it is. However, it's markedly worse with some, but not all, of the reeds I have tried.
When I was struggling with the mouthpiece I got with the instrument, I bought a lot of different reeds, so have a good range to try out on the new mouthpieces. They fall into two groups:
Some of them play reasonably in tune (eg D'Addario Reserve cane reeds, various Légères) but are really poor in the upper clarion - ok up to about G, muffled and hard to get above that. Not bad again in altissimo.
Some (eg Harry Hartmann Fiberreed, Fibracell) are good throughout the clarion, good tone and it's easy to drop down into the upper clarion from the altissimo. These, though, are all really flat in the chalumeau - as much as a semitone in the worst instances.
I seem to have ended up with a choice of being able to play a reasonable range, or reasonably in tune, but not both. It's not to do with strength of reed because I can go from too soft to too hard in, say, the Légères, and the problem is the same across the spectrum. I simply don't know what to look for, or even if there is anything to look for. I would have thought that if there was a problem with the instrument, like a leaking pad, it would be the same for all the reeds.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully received.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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