In the picture above, the orange-box Rico reeds are the narrower 19mm ones. Some people are playing the wrong reeds and don’t even know it. Sound quality suffers, though, so it’s worth the effort to make sure you’re using a reed with the correct width. I’ve done it both ways, and I can manage to produce notes. It’s possible to play a wider reed on a mouthpiece that was designed for a narrower reed, and it’s also possible to play a narrower reed on a mouthpiece that was designed for a wider reed. The larger and smaller contra reeds only differ by about 1mm in width, which isn’t much. Usually this can be addressed by messing with the tenon cork.)īut which size reed to use is trickier. So sometimes it’s a tighter or looser fit than you would like. (That said, I have found that the larger mouthpieces can vary by 1mm or so in diameter between brands. If you have the wrong size mouthpiece then it will not physically fit. The mouthpiece receiver will be sized to accept either a 32mm or a 36mm mouthpiece. Let’s suppose you have a contrabass clarinet you want to play, and you’re trying to figure out which size mouthpiece and reed to use. Some Eb contra clarinets (primarily the metal Leblanc ones) take the larger-diameter mouthpiece, and some of these larger-diameter mouthpieces call for the wider reeds. But with contrabass clarinets it just not this simple. I think we can agree that that’s how it works if we’re talking about bass clarinets and alto clarinets. Now you might think that a larger contra would take a larger mouthpiece and a larger reed, while a smaller contra would take a smaller mouthpiece and a smaller reed. (Also, I have heard that some contra clarinet mouthpieces call for baritone saxophone reeds, which are about 18mm at the tip, so that’s something to watch out for.) The larger ones are about 20mm wide at the tip, while the smaller ones are about 19mm wide at the tip. (I hear that some oddball Eb contras are designed to take bass clarinet mouthpieces, which measure approximately 30mm, but I’m going to ignore those.)Ĭontrabass clarinet reeds come in two sizes as well. The smaller ones measure approximately 32mm.
The larger ones have an outer tenon diameter of approximately 36mm. The smaller is the Eb contrabass clarinet, also known as EEb contra, contra-alto, or (incorrectly) “contralto.” The Bb contra sounds an octave below a Bb bass clarinet, while the Eb contra sounds in the middle between a Bb bass and a BBb contra.Ĭontrabass clarinet mouthpieces also come in two sizes. The larger is the Bb contrabass clarinet, also known as the BBb contra.