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Ridenour 'HW'
Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece
Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece
Ted Ridenour says the following about the HW: In 1996 I had the opportunity of playing and closely examining and measuring one of the late and great Harold Wright's favorite Chedeville mouthpieces. Mr. Wright was by far my favorite clarinetist and the one who defined what it was to make music with refined elegance and beauty, approaching clarinet phrasing with the nuance and control of a fine violinist. I was careful to take the facing measurements in detail, note the style of the baffel (which was not nearly as radical in concavity as the Zinner models and others which some claim to be like the Chedeville. I have, in fact, seen many Chedevilles of the period of the 40s and 50s, and they varied quite a bit in dimensions. The facing was one which I was well familiar having studied mouthpiece making with Everet Matson, who had done the work on that particular mouthpiece. I was also most careful to note total length and take the bore dimensions for pitch and stability considerations.
Subsequently, I had a reamer made to replicate the bore dimensions and taper, worked on developing a chamber that is very much like the one I measured in shape and depth (apparently not all Mr. Wright's Chedevilles were of the same style) with the intention of ultimately developing a model very similar to it. I was told by the person who let me examine the mouthpiece, a very close friend of Wright's, that Mr. Wright had told him that mouthpiece was the only one he played with adequate resistance. I understood by that he meant the mouthpiece held the sound together, preventing it from opening up and losing quality while phrasing expressively, especially in the high register. My HW facing model was created not just to measure and have similar dimensions to that mouthpiece, but to possess the characteristic "hold" that seemed to be its most appealing feature. Those who try it will be the judge as to how well I succeeded.