Mouthpieces are a very personal choice. Used with a 50-year old Selmer Bass Clarinet, this B50 gives great tonal range and flexibility. Possibly not the best choice for a newcomer, though.

I was searching for a bass clarinet mouthpiece to upgrade to after nearly a decade playing on Clark Fobes' Nova mouthpiece (CF facing). I tried many mouthpieces in my search, and came across a few gems, including the Vandoren B50. I really liked the focused and rich sound of the B40, but articulation on that mouthpiece is quite difficult, requiring more effort to create a clear start of sound. I decided to order a B50 on a whim, and was pleasantly surprised. This facing combines the rich tone quality (with somewhat less focus) of the B40 with the ease of articulation that made the Fobes Nova great.This particular mouthpiece has a VERY open tip (2.15mm) and a long facing length, so a softer reed is recommended. Vandoren's Traditional (blue box) strength 3 and V12 (gray box) strength 2.5-3 worked well for me. Along with this tip opening is the ability to really generate a great deal of volume for the lower register, especially helpful if you have a low C bass clarinet. Playing in the upper register on this mouthpiece requires a greater attention to voicing, given the very open dimensions of this mouthpiece. Overall, this mouthpiece is great for a more experienced bass clarinetist, who may benefit from the qualities of this mouthpiece. I would not recommend this for beginning students, who very well may struggle with the massive air requirement and voicing idiosyncrasies that this mouthpiece presents.

This Vandoren B50 is as good or better than my 20 year old Bay MO-M or my Grabner mouthpiece, each of which cost twice as much. Much nicer sound, much better control all the way up to 5th octave C. It has a bit more resistance, but the trade off is a cleaner and more refined sound. I play it on my Buffet 1193 bass. Easy to play soft when needed but still has plenty of reserve volume and punch for accents and sforzandos. I never thought I would buy another production mouthpiece, but here I am.

I bought this to replace a B44 I couldn't get on with at all. So far I've only played for about 10 minutes, but instantly I felt and heard the difference.It works well with 2.5 Vandoren reeds and has a wider tip ideal for whatever flawed technique I use to get a note out of the instrument!Excellent customer service from Amazon too; refund for the B44 and next day prime delivery on the B50.

As expected