I've asked the essentially same question in the sax area, but let's be more specific, here .
How important is the mouthpiece to you? In my case, I find it easily more important than even horn choice: I have a decent 1981 wooden Selmer Signet 100 (an intermediate horn) and I sound really good on it with my 20+ year old Selmer C85/120 hard rubber mouthpiece.
But it wasn't always so.
I used to hate playing clarinet because I had a real POS Bundy mouthpiece and a slightly newer Signet clarinet. It was so resistant, I gave up playing for a couple years.
I didn't know you could change the mouthpiece.
When I started up again, the clarinet I got happened to have a Vandoren B40 mouthpiece and I fell in love with playing again.
The current mouthpiece I have is even less resistant, IMO, and it sounds really good on any horn I've thrown at it -- and most of them have been student horns (although I've tried it on a Selmer 10 and a Buffet R13). So it's not necessarily the horn, as long as the horn is in decent shape.
How important is the mouthpiece to you? In my case, I find it easily more important than even horn choice: I have a decent 1981 wooden Selmer Signet 100 (an intermediate horn) and I sound really good on it with my 20+ year old Selmer C85/120 hard rubber mouthpiece.
But it wasn't always so.
I used to hate playing clarinet because I had a real POS Bundy mouthpiece and a slightly newer Signet clarinet. It was so resistant, I gave up playing for a couple years.
I didn't know you could change the mouthpiece.
When I started up again, the clarinet I got happened to have a Vandoren B40 mouthpiece and I fell in love with playing again.
The current mouthpiece I have is even less resistant, IMO, and it sounds really good on any horn I've thrown at it -- and most of them have been student horns (although I've tried it on a Selmer 10 and a Buffet R13). So it's not necessarily the horn, as long as the horn is in decent shape.