Sumner Acousticut Rubber #3 Clarinet Mouthpiece-Great Condition-Rare 4 Ring-Wow!

Sumner

Acousticut

Hard Rubber

Clarinet Mouthpiece

#3

Rare 4 Rings Above Ligature Line

Superb Player

Fantastic Condition!

New Cork

Ligature and Cap Included

From my personal collection: This is a fabulous condition super rare Sumner Acousticut clarinet mouthpiece. This mouthpiece has the facing 3 stamped on the body. The actual tip opening measures .043" or 1.10 mm. But this description has nothing to do with the excellence of this mouthpiece. The tone, color and spectrum of overtones produced rival even the greatest makers of all time! This is a superb player which apparently dates from the earlier years between the late 1960's and early 1970's. This one has the 4 lines above the ligature line and one below.

If you care to read the history of the Sumner mouthpieces I copied this essay online.

"Hello to everyone in this thread! I am Robert Black, and I founded and ran The Saxophone Shop, Ltd. in Evanston, Illinois, from 1974 until 2004 when I sold it. I believe that The Saxophone Shop, Ltd. was the first saxophone specific store since the Brown Brothers in the 1920s. One of my former managers, Paul Maslin, started P.M. Woodwinds about 10 years ago and carries on the tradition here in Evanston, Illinois and there are many other excellent places today for saxophonists to get help and products.

In 1980, I purchased the Sumner Company and its "Acousticut" brand from Warren Sumner Swanson, and I still own the names and productions. Although Warren had a stroke, he still was able to instruct me on making and finishing the mouthpieces. Along with Frank Wells,(who rented a studio from me for his final 10 years when The Saxophone Shop, Ltd. was on Central Street in Evanston) Eugene "Bud" Reglein, Santy Runyon, and Bobby Dukoff, and Frank Kasper, Warren Sumner Swanson was a true mouthpiece making genius. Warren, could carve a mouthpiece from a piece of wood, rod rubber, or probably granite if given the time. He was an excellent clarinet player, and the clarinet mouthpieces were his passion. Saxophone was the stepchild.

In the beginning of Sumner, Warren actually carved the mouthpieces from hard rubber rods. Because that was too time consuming, especially on carving out the chamber, he developed a molding form and had the blanks cast at the Hamburger Gummi-Warren factory in Germany. This is the same factory that makes all of the VanDoren mouthpiece blanks. (these are really semi finished mouthpieces). When I purchased the Sumner Acousticut factory, we were still supplying clarinet mouthpieces for Frank Kasper, Borbeck, Bay and others. They would purchase the mouthpieces in a nearly finished form and then put final finishing on them. At one point, Frank Kasper came to The Saxophone Shop, Ltd. once or twice yearly to look through and pick out semi finished mouthpieces. This was in the mid 1980's.

After Warren died, his widow needed to sell the building, and I closed operations in Minneapolis. Subsequent to that time, the mouthpieces have been made to my specifications at the Meyer/ Link/Babbit manufacturing plant in Elkhart, Indiana. In 1986, I was fortunate to participate as a member of Chicago Pro Musica on the William Walton FACADE recording and I played the Sumner #3 mouthpiece made in Elkhart. That recording, won a "Grammy" and each of the 8 members of the group received an actual Grammy. If you want to hear what the large chamber version sounds like, that is the sound. We now have a Professional C* series for alto and tenor which give the more focused sound of the French C* at a reasonable price."

The Sumner history is nearly as impressive as the mouthpiece. It's in excellent condition. Never altered or buffed. The scuffs are from the ligature. Everything else is in great condition.

Just cleaned and recorked in the shop.  

We're including the ligature and cap shown.

Shipping anywhere. 

Thanks for looking!