Klarinet Archive - Posting 000399.txt from 1994/05

From: Dawn Anthes <danthes@-----.EDU>
Subj: Selmer low C
Date: Mon, 23 May 1994 15:54:52 -0400

Thanks for all the advice on my bass clarinet problem.
In answer to your questions Dan Leeson the instrument is not mine, it
belongs to the University I am attending (UWSP), it is about 5 years old,
it is still in the original case, I am using a Selmer C* mouthpiece with
stock ligature, Vandoren bass clarinet reeds #4.
This instrument has not seen a repair shop in at least a year, it is in
almost constant use because it is the only low C instrument the
University has, we have no stand for it so whenever someone doubled on it
it got sat on the floor when not in use.
I mistakenly said I had trouble with the written octave from c1-b1, I
meant b1-a2 (written b, middle of the staff to a above that.) Upon
further playing and a great deal of tinkering with my embouchure I've
gotten these notes to sound (most of the time) but they sound really bad.
The left hand f/c key is bent so that when depressed it gets caught behind the
other keys.
I am planning on working with it for a while longer, but if the
situation does not improve much I may just try and get back the other
instrument I was renting, a Selmer low Eb bass wich plays just fabulously.
Sometimes it seems the increased performance ability of these newer
instruments do not warrant the problems the increasingly complicated (and
increasingly sensitive) key mechanisms cause. There is so much that can
go wrong I am surprised they play at all.

Dawn M. Anthes email:danthes@-----.edu
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* Bass Clarinetist of fortune *
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