Ken Mills writes “The Vandoren 5JB clarinet mouthpiece, with the side walls filed further apart where they go to the bore, is a hotrod. The Vandoren 2½ reed is not too soft, and the Marca 2 or 2½ are the same style of reed. Now one can go up to double high C. The sound is the most dark in the clarion register and the power is the most so that nobody can stand up to me outdoors unless they play the trumpet. Use it with a large bore clarinet, but it should be sort of a high pitched instrument such as the Selmer, or what is another one? The alto sax is too bright so that we have trouble with treble, except for, of course, Paul Desmond. Get out of my way, because clarinet goes just as low, you sax people.”
Have you ever tried the 5JB mouthpiece with a Buffet S-1? (larger bore than the R13)
I use one of these on a Noblet (.580″ bore); it really wails using Gonzalez 3 1/4 reeds, but you can back it right down to a whisper too. Tuning is good with 66mm barrel. I used to play on a B45, but it didn’t tune as well or play as loud with the big band to contend with.
I wish I could find a good mouthpiece for my leblanc alto clarinet. Any ideas?
I wrote a long new post about that… I hope it’ll be accepted by the admin.
To make it short: try, try and try again without any a priori, different mpc and reeds combinations
I have a Noblet Bb clarinet, according to the s/n it was made in 1966. There is the letter “N” above the name “Noblet” which is encircled by an oval with the sides of the oval slightly squared. Can anyone give me any information on this model? It has a five digit s/n starting with 39. Is it a large or a small bore clarinet?