A Setup Is Just A Setup

You've got two choices when you put your setup together.  You can:

A)  Buy all the expensive everybody on the message boards says you have to buy is you're "serious".

or

B)  Get stuff that works for you.

Hard reeds are not a red badge of courage.  Closed tip mouthpieces are not the mark of a true professional.  And expense is not the hallmark of good equipment.

You know that nasty stock mouthpiece that comes in a rented instrument?  It works just fine.  Charging $250 or more for a mouthpiece does not make the mouthpiece maker an "artist", "craftsman", or even good at his job.  It just means his mouthpieces are exorbitantly expensive.  Too bad a good reed and a similar mouthpiece that is half as expensive or less would play almost exactly the same way.  Mouthpieces only matter in your mind's ear (and my mind's ear is not comfortable spending $500 on a mouthpiece.)

You know the relatively soft reeds you started on in middle school?  They work just fine too.  In fact, they'll work for a really long time until your embouchure is strong that you just can play the soft reeds anymore.

What about that plastic instrument that's a little leaky?  It plays just fine.  If everyone started playing on a $10,000 horn then no one would have any real skill at playing the instrument.  You have to build character playing instruments that aren't perfect.

That's why you hear about pros going to gigs and finding their horn doesn't work.  They aren't used to playing on unregulated equipment and a tiny little leak stumps them.  All that time you spent on a leaky horn will pay off when you need it most.

I'm going to hand a young student a plastic Bass Clarinet that's never been overhauled, never been regulated, that has been rained on, snowed on (just once), marched all over the place, been subjected to drastic temperature changes, with a stock mouthpiece and some soft Gonzalez reeds tomorrow and that kid will play the horn just fine.

Why?  Because they don't care if the horn is nice or not.  They just want to play.  To them:

A setup is just a setup.