Synthetic Reeds

Just to be devil's advocate

If you look at the Vandoren clarinet mouthpiece comparison chart you will see that they recommend different strength reeds for different mouthpieces - from a 1-2 for a 7JB to a 3.5-5 for an M13.  But, at least as I understand it, all those reeds should feel more-or-less equally hard when you're playing them.  The mouthpiece can make a huge difference: a 5 in a 7JB would be like playing an oak plank and a 1 in an M13 would be like playing a skinny bit of balsa wood.  Shorter mouthpieces make a reed feel harder, as do more open ones; longer or more closed make them feel softer.  You will see that the B45, which they call their universal mouthpiece, has a medium opening and a medium length, in other words is "average" and they recommend an average strength reed. 

Thus if you want to try a Légère 2.0, their softest, you could just switch to a different mouthpiece.  I've tried a few and I use a mouthpiece that is long and has a narrow opening so it makes reeds seem pretty soft, and I still only use a 2.0 or thereabouts (I've got a couple of 2.25s).

Most mouthpiece makers and some shops will send you a bunch of them on approval, so it needn't cost more than postage to try some out.  And what else is there to do in winter???

I'm also not good at buying things on approval and have a cupboard full of stuff just behind me to prove it.  But with mouthpieces, I really do think it's worth being firm with yourself.  Partly because they are not like, say, a recorder you buy and think "it will never be my favourite" but you could still pick it up and play it from time to time - some will seem unplayably awful and you will never use them at all.  Partly because they can be quite expensive things.  I have not been entirely successful at not building up a mouthpiece collection, but partly by accident (eg I dropped one and scratched it so I couldn't send it back), and I have rejected several.  There is also a little bit of variation so I don't exclusively use only one of them.

I don't know what mouthpiece you have, but everyone on clarinet forums says the one you get with the instrument will probably be very basic and not much good and the best value upgrade you ever make will be to get a better one.  Of course, everyone in that context means every self-indulgent adult hobbyist who can afford to treat themselves to a new mouthpiece (or whatever), but there is probably some truth in it.  That same everyone seems to be fairly split on the subject of the Yamaha mouthpiece.  Some say it's great, a really good value upgrade that will make a big difference for not much money; others say it is very poor and not worth the bother.  I don't know whether that's because it's a bit basic or because it's fairly inexpensive, so how can it be any good??  When I was playing clarinet the first time around and had some lessons, the teacher I had was really impressed by the clarinet I had (an Uebel, which he had never heard of before - they are a long established German company that were trying to break into the Boehm clarinet world so the instruments were good value) but said it needed a decent mouthpiece rather than the bit of junk I was using.  Which was of course the Yamaha.  He got me to get a Vandoren B46, I think more because he liked it than because it was the very best for me, but he reckoned it was a big improvement in sound quality.

I'm not sure that I could really suggest anything because the mouthpieces I've tried wouldn't fit your clarinet.  Probably my very favourite is my Wurlitzer, for the somewhat childish reason that it's made of semi-transparent smoked perspex and looks pretty cool!  The two I have found easiest are an AW, of which I have the D90 which would not work for you but you could try one of their Boehm models.  I have the "modern" style and it really is more comfortable, I can play it for a long time.  Thomann sell them here here and I think you would get free postage to UK and they will definitely take them back without question if you don't like them.  You do have to pay upfront.  The other one I liked is a Gleichweit which are even more expensive than the AWs!  I think though that they will let you have a selection for testing for a relatively small fee.  Given that if you chose 3 to test they would probably cost more than the clarinet did, you would definitely have to plan to send them back if you didn't like them.  In the UK, Dawkes are pretty good.  They have a mouthpiece page which offers home testing of up to 3 at a time for a small charge for each of the ones you reject.  I'm sure they could offer you advice about what you might try.

Occasionally I like to look at these very expensive instruments and dream that I would be so good at playing them that I'd actually get that extra bit of tonal quality out of them that is presumably what all that expense confers - like thinking I can't afford a stradivarius but the expense would be justified if I could.  The last clarinet I bought cost €115.

It's a bit the same with the mouthpieces.  I've read things by people who say they use such and such a mouthpiece when playing in an orchestra, but a different one in a small group for its slightly different tonal qualities.  In my hands, it's more along the lines you report: sometimes it sounds good, sometimes it doesn't.  The main difference I find is in how relaxing they are to play.

I use a soft reed anyway, so if I'm tired I can't make life easier by going down a notch or two, there is nowhere to go, so my testing has all been about finding something comfortable that works with a 2.0 reed because that's the softest Légère make.  I've tried a couple of mouthpieces where even that is too hard.  As for the ones I settled on, they are both within my comfort zone.  The AW one is the easiest and I use it a bit more than the other one.  I don't use it all the time because it's harder to get the very high notes with it.  I bought the Wurlitzer one mainly because I read that it was a very good "standard" mouthpiece for beginners and I wanted to try that.  I do have to work a bit harder with it, but it's not super difficult and I can get the high notes much more easily.  Does it sound any better?  I don't honestly know.  Sometimes I think it does a little, sometimes I think there's nothing in it.

I don't know. What is the difference between Nikon and Canon? Or is the point that there isn't one?

Wood!