Innovation. The mouthpiece together with the reed form the sound producing part of the clarinet. Together they exert the strongest influence on the sound characteristics of a clarinet and provide, together with individual adjustment and the optimal compatibility of the materials, for high sound quality. Annoying "squeaks," disturbing "noises" as well as bad "articulation" of a clarinet are often the result of a low quality reed. What is less known, though, is that it could also be the result of an incongruent coaction of the musician's jaw and teeth positions and the mouthpiece being used. Mouthpieces vary according to the gradients and the surface structure of their facings which, not visible to the naked eye, may be quite considerable. Up until now, it was possible to differentiate, isolate and compare a large number of facing gradients by means of Johannes Gleichweit's high-tech procedure. As a result of this, a number of facing gradients turned out to be of high quality and, with the help of the innovative milling method, could be copied with a precision of 0,005 mm on to both new and older mouthpieces.

High-tech. Johannes Gleichweit's high-tech procedure - which has been meticulously researched, developed and tested - achieves two aims: (1) mouthpieces with their individual specific facing gradients are electronically scanned with great statictical precision and the data is stored. The facing gradients can now, with the help of the collected data, be depicted graphically and thus compared with one another. The mouthpiece facings of highly experienced clarinettists active in various Austrian orchestras also „posed" for us. As they rank among the highest quality, www.musicshop-vienna.com offers them preferentially and (2) they are produced in series by highly precise milling.

Mouthpiece facings. Time, knowledge, years of experience as well as possibilities to experiment all play a great rôle when choosing a suitable mouthpiece. These are resources that professional musicians do possess and that is why experienced musicians usually own first-class mouthpieces. To reduce costs and effort, the facing gradients of the clarinettists listed below can be copied on to both new mouthpieces as well on to those already in use. It is crucial, when making the right choice for one or more facing gradients, to test the chosen mouthpieces or their prototypes on your own instrument or to make use of our offer of support and advice.

The mouthpiece facings of the following renowned performers can be chosen from: