Rico H-lig for BC

[saxhound]

The lig that came with my bass was a little shaky, so I ordered a Rico H-lig. The darn thing is too big. I have tried it on both the Yamaha 4C and Garrett pieces I own, and I can't tighten it down enough unless I slide it way, way down the piece. If I do that, the reed wants to slide side to side, and intonation gets a little wild.

I know I can use tape or a patch to widen the diameter of the mouthpiece, but I don't think that should be necessary. Is there that much variation in the size / shape of bass clarinet mouthpieces?

 

[gregcagle]

That's weird. I use the Rico H ("RBCL") on my Garrett MP and it works fine.

 

[kevgermany]

I know this isn't what you asked... But on saxes there's a lot of difference between the mouthpieces.

I used a loose patch to compensate for excessive taper on my tenor mouthpiece. Was a real pain. I ended up making a leather strap, which stretched. I've now glued a rubber patch in, and it's holding up well and avoids the hassle of a loose patch. But I found that if the patch isn't curved to match the reed, I get a lot of squeaks, as it's only pressing in the centre-line of the reed, not on the edges.

 

[saxhound]

I'm not a big fan of a soft patch on the reed. I know some ligs have rubber bumpers, but the config of the H-lig is set up to cradle the reed. I put a couple short pieces of electrical tape on the back side of the mouthpiece, and that gave it enough thickness to allow me to tighten the lig without running out of thread. I need to find something better than electrical tape, because that will eventually get sticky as the adhesive bleeds out. I thought about drilling a couple holes in the back of the lig, and putting small rivets there, but I'm afraid that reducing the contact area will cause it to slide around.