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While well known for his horn music and teaching, Verne Reynolds was not known as an equipment guru. On the other hand, any good horn teacher has some practical knowledge of what helps students play better, and Reynolds as longtime Eastman faculty had his for sure.
One of the more popular articles on the site is A Look at Giardinelli Mouthpieces Through the Ages. As explained there, for many years these were one of the top lines of American mouthpieces, with popularity peaking I believe in the 1970s-80s.
While they are on the market still, the ones made now are not ones a pro might consider using. The old Giardinelli shop in New York City is long gone. But back when I started in on my Masters degree study at Eastman in 1984, LOTS of people used Giardinelli mouthpieces. To be honest, there were not many good options out there; the only other line that was as available at the same general quality was Schilke. People in the Conn 8D side of the playing world primarily used Giardinelli, and over on the Geyer side of things Schilke was the choice.
Most of the horn mouthpieces by Giardinelli that a serious horn player might use were screw rim. The thread design they used remains the standard used today in the USA.
The C series cups were their most popular model, the “C” being for James Chambers, longtime Julliard faculty and New York Philharmonic Principal Horn. Probably the most popular model was the C-10, which I am guessing I was in fact playing when I started at Eastman. The “10” is the size of the drill used to make the hole (using a set of machinists numbered drills, explained further here).
Made by hand one at a time, not every mouthpiece they made was great. The first place you might begin to suspect an issue is if you checked the bore with a drill. The likely result is it was not quite the advertised size. A 4 that was actually a 6, etc. If you started looking even closer, you would find significant variations in the backbore and the shank size, areas where thousandths of an inch really matter.
Where Verne Reynolds fits into the story today is he knew that the shank fit was significant. What he had me do to work on this to improve my mouthpiece was go to a particular local repair person in Rochester and have her turn the shank down to where she felt it was where it needed to be. Who was that repair person? Dorothy Frizelle, the same person the IHS excerpt competition is named for.
I recently got curious to compare her shanks on the two of these I still have with the three stock Giardinelli mouthpieces I have, and the difference is huge.
The first photo shows a stock cup (only, no rim).
The second photo shows the reduced diameter shank as done by Frizelle. You can see it fits in the receiver MUCH further. The receiver used for the photos is a vintage Lawson leadpipe.
Honestly, I think she may have taken it down too far. Of course, ideal shank size is a moving target, dependent on your horn and how you want it to feel. However, for comparison I can tell you a Houser 0 shank is about halfway in size between the before and after photos, and the stock Giardinelli shank is way too big for most any horn I have.
The result of the overly turned down shank is that the high range when I try these now is quite flat (although I can push it up to be in tune). Of course, think back to the old 8D you might have used with this mouthpiece. Typically, the high range was sharp on these, so a mouthpiece that tends to plays flat in the high range might have helped…. Maybe that was the goal?
Somehow I made it work. After Eastman I began to experiment with Atkinson mouthpieces, then Lawson, used a FARKAS MODEL when I won the Nashville audition, etc.
But Giardinelli mouthpieces such as these above are old school and not a very good choice today. If you are using one, you owe it to yourself to try something more modern. For more ideas on the topic check out the most recent episode (53!) of The Horn Notes Podcast, available everywhere you access podcasts or directly here.
