[AcousticSmash]

I have been hankering for one for ages now since the old Vandoren plays like blowing through a straw, so I was browsing on Woodwind and Brasswind today and decided to order a new one, a crystal one to be exact.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to play alongside Canadian jazz clarinet legend Phil Nimmons, who at 80 can still tear it up on a horn and he was using a crystal mouthpiece similar to mine, although apparently his cost about 1000 dollars but I think his was made by a more well known mouthpiece company like Otto Link. Here is a picture from within the last 5 years of him playing a crystal mouthpiece, although it is hard to tell:

[rasav]

Good choice on the mouth piece!!!

If you're in the market, I've been seeing a lot of Buffet and selmer clarinets in chain pawn shops for as little as 2-300$ US. I was surprised the last time I went, the had a slemer high end clarinet for only 280! (Some off wood....rosewood or ? Lighter color than bubinga anyway, with gold plated keys.) At the price, even if I've got to send it out for a 400 dollar refurb it's a bargain!

[AcousticSmash]

I have a vintage Selmer Series 9 clarinet from the 1970's, it is made of rosewood and sounds stellar, but the mouthpiece that I have for it which is an old Vandoren V360 that was in the case when my mom gave the horn to me several years ago. I cleaned up the mouthpiece though, had to sterilize it for a couple of days to get the grime and smell out, but I wanted a new one anyway since the old one was like playing through a straw, the chamber was insanely small. I would be willing to bet that my Selmer is worth more then any professional clarinet on the market and imo, it sounds far better anyway since it is made of a better quality wood.

The problem I have with clarinet mouthpieces is that there are not a lot of great brands like there are with saxophones, I am an endorser of Otto Link and have owned two of their mouthpieces over the years, currently using a gold plated metal mouthpiece which gives my horn a lot more balls (and no, I noticed zero change from hard rubber to metal when it comes to playing, probably cause I got one with a 7* facing).