Mouthpieces for Beginners

[Ed Svoboda]

I would say that for most clarinet and saxophone players they should strongly consider Vandoren mouthpieces as their first professional piece. They're well made and readily available.

[SteveSklar]

I would say that for most clarinet and saxophone players they should strongly consider Vandoren mouthpieces as their first professional piece. They're well made and readily available.

I agree with Vandoren as they are high quality and available at most local music stores. The only problem is the daunting list of mouthpieces they have available.

Best to recommend like a B45 as a "generic" mouthpiece. Many times younger people are overwhelmed when they are told to play test this and that .. many don't realize that they are not experienced enough to hear/ see /feel a difference.

I also like the Selmer Paris mouthpieces, high quality and widely available.

[Ed Svoboda]

The problem I have with Selmer pieces is that The S80's are terrible. The S90's are better but still not better sounding than most of the pieces available from Vandoren. The re-issued Soloists are a vast improvement over the S80/S90 line. Of course we are talking sax mouthpieces.

The Selmer clarinet pieces are easy to recommend. The HS* is one that I play on once in a while.

I just think that the Vandoren stuff is generally better thought out.

The B45 or M45 on clarinet is a fine mouthpiece.

The V5 series for saxes is great for concert band playing and the V16 line is great for jazz. Our own Merlin loves his B75 on bari. They are very nice pieces.

[pete]

The nice thing about being an Admin is that you can move posts that are in the wrong topic :P.

BTB, as with the Selmer sax mouthpieces, HS* is now just a facing. The mouthpiece is now called the "201".

==========

Standard info about clarinet mouthpieces:

* Beginners shouldn't bother with metal or crystal mouthpieces. These 'pieces will be too hard for you control.
* Plastic mouthpieces should be avoided, as they have fairly poor response. Get hard rubber. Yes, these will be more than $20.
* When you buy a clarinet mouthpiece, you might be asked about facings or tip openings. Just get whatever's "medium".

-> The Vandoren B45 or B40 mouthpiece is an extremely good choice for the student. They are in the $60 range and easily suit a wide variety of clarinets.

-> As a bit of a step up, I heartily recommend the mouthpiece I still use, the Selmer C85. However, this is a much more expensive mouthpiece, at approximately $100. ( I traded someone a Vandoren B40 for this mouthpiece and we were both happy with the trade.)

-----------

As a personal aside, I gave up clarinet for several years because I had a really bad mouthpiece and didn't know you could get a replacement. When I had to play clarinet as part of a concert where I was switching from horn to horn, the rental I had had a Vandoren B40. It was so easy to play, I went out and bought another clarinet and a new Vandoren B45.

[pete]

On clarinet I like the Hite (very reasonably priced) and more expensive models.
Trying to keep the threads mostly clean for beginners.

The Hite Artist Series mouthpieces are around $65 and I have heard other players like these quite a bit. I've not used one so I can't say.

I have used a custom Pyne, made back when you had to sit down with Pyne and he'd customize the mouthpiece for you -- sadly, it wasn't my mouthpiece. It was decent enough, but definitely not for beginners: they're now $350.

[tictactux]

I'd just like to add

Hite Premiere
Fobes Debut
Behn Ouverture

as low-cost alternatives. Very reasonably priced ($25..$40), easily controllable, reed-friendly in the typical beginner range from 2.0..3.5, free-blowing with a good stable tone on probably all instruments (tested on Vito, Leblanc, Bundy, Amati, Marigaux, Buffet, Lemaire, Yamaha, Noblet).
Yes, I use them all on a regular basis, for several years.

[Tammi]

Believe it or not Bundy hard rubber mouthpieces are VERY good, and affordable.

[pete]

Believe it or not Bundy hard rubber mouthpieces are VERY good, and affordable.
I'm glad I Googled.

It's one of those, "Buyer Be Aware" things (not necessarily "Buyer Beware").

The Bundy mouthpiece that came with Bundy clarinets (and came with my late 1970's Selmer Signet) was PLASTIC (and had an emblem that looked like this (http://images.miretail.com/logos/Bundy.gif) on it). It's now called a "BP201" and sells for under $20. It's junk.

(I'm fairly positive that the BP201 is identical to the Selmer "Goldentone".)

The Bundy mouthpiece that Tammi refers to is probably the Geo. M. Bundy Signature (http://www.wwbw.com/Bundy-Bb-Clarinet-Mouthpiece-467459-i1442344.wwbw?source=TWFRWXX&mr:trackingCode=141EE473-5B81-DE11-9973-0019B9C2BEFD&mr:referralID=NA) made of hard rubber. It costs around $35 - $40.

===========

Again, please note that we're saying HARD RUBBER is better than PLASTIC. If you really need cheap and have to go plastic, the Yamaha 4C (http://www.wwbw.com/Yamaha-4C-Bb-Clarinet-Mouthpiece-462505-i1143237.wwbw) is acceptable and costs around $25 (it's a good copy of a Vandoren design), but I only recommend it if you can't afford $60 or so for a much, much better mouthpiece.

[Clarinet-Aaron]

the Yamaha 4C (http://www.wwbw.com/Yamaha-4C-Bb-Clarinet-Mouthpiece-462505-i1143237.wwbw) is acceptable and costs around $25 (it's a good copy of a Vandoren design), but I only recommend it if you can't afford $60 or so for a much, much better mouthpiece.

I'm using a 4C right now, it's what I've always had and I'm just now getting into looking at new mouthpieces. Do you know what Vandoren mouthpiece it is a copy of? I get a really warm sound on mine but I can't put all my air through it and I almost have to articulate early to be in time, which as I've read reviews of mouthpieces on here, seems to be something that can be affected by which mouthpiece you use. I just don't want my sound to get worse, as I've been playing for seven years on this 'piece, and people have told me that I have a really good sound for being on a student mouthpiece.