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Portnoy BP02 clarinet MP anyone?

Author: petrosv
Date: 2025-04-05 00:10

Are there any players using or familiar with the Portnoy BP02 clarinet mouthpiece?

I started playing 8 years ago on a Ledoux Artist Bb clarinet which is an amazing under the radar clarinet made in France for Carl Fischer in the late 50's early 60's and it has even stood in respectable comparison to a 5 digit R13 (obviously not as good but keywork is) especially because it was $450

I had gone through several MP's finally settling on a Portnoy BP02 which is .050 tip opening 1.27 mm but I always seemed to be flat and needed to really push to get up to pitch even after the horn was warm.

I just saw FS a newly overhauled Selmer Centered Tone from 1952-3 and got it today. Great horn! And with the CT was a Selmer Oval D MP which is perfect opening for me and interestingly I played it on the Ledoux and I was now up to pitch (also the same on the Centered Tone) and the intonation on the Ledoux improved to be equal to the CT.

In looking at the two MP's I noticed that the Portnoy is actually shorter. So just curious because this is a famous MP and obviously Bernard Portnoy would not design a MP that was chronically flat due to it's design. The BP02 I bought new from Weiner Music about 5 years ago so it's not an original MP. Maybe something happened with the manufacturing process at some point? (is it Babbitt that made them ? As far as I can tell they are no longer made)

So be interested to hear from anyone who uses/used this piece about the pitch issue. Thanks

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