Klarinet Archive - Posting 000303.txt from 1995/06

From: Rien Stein <rien@-----.NL>
Subj: Selmer clarinets
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 07:27:05 -0400

Bill, Dan

When I started to play the clarinet in 1969 it was on a loaned
instrument "of high pitch", I don't remember the make of it. It was
very old, and of the Albert fingering. Because I graduated from
University and moved to another city I had to rturn it to the
owner - a wind band. I decided to buy a private instrument as soon
as my first salary arrived, which I did.

The first clarinet I bought, in 1971, was a Selmer B-flat. It was
a horror to me: out of tune, and an absolutely unusable mouthpiece
(from selmer's own make, if I remember right it was a *). When I
called the company, to complain about it, the owner of the company,
who was also the importer (I hope that 's the correct term)
answered me that a Selmer out of tune was an impossibility. He
promised me to give me another selmer of a better type, if I were
right. I got the "better" instrument.

That was even worse. So much out of tune that even people with
"wooden" ears noticed it. And the mechanism was no less then a terror:
after playing ten minutes my fingers started aching, whereas before
I could play on forever.

I got my money back, with excuses, and got from the same firm a
B&H (type forgotten). That was quite a reasonable instrument, but
it deceased after in an accident a bus decided to alter its shape
rather drastically: you don't make much music on a splittered
instrument. At that time there were great problems in the
woodwind department of B&H, as most professionals on this list probably
will be aware of. That 's why after some testing in the price class
I could afford, I decided to buy a Buffet-Crampon BC10. By mere luck
and chance when on a short vacation with my wife in Paris I could
lay hands on a new one for only half the price from a shop that was
closing. Now I play 12 years on it, and I still think it is a great
instrument. The only change I made on it was to replace the lousy
mouth piece that came with it by the Vandoren B45 I was used to.

That mouthpiece have I been using till three years ago, and on my
A horn I still use it incidently. Now I am using a Piet Jeeger mp,
but that has some faults: little projection, and wearing out far too
fast.

But to come back on the first subject: I was very unhappy with my
Selmer clarinet. In contrast however: I have been playing soprano
sax in a windband without woodwinds (except saxofoons. For the Dutch
and Belgian people on this list: a fanfare), and I have tried
several other instruments, but I think the saxophones of Selmer
are better then any other make I played on.

And now I am on it: in another windband I play the bass clarinet
(yes, it was me with the question about Martin Freres). This
instrument is about 100 years old, and I should be glad to use
a better one in the band, although I am very fond of my "opa"
(a Ditch word for granddad) as
my children call it. But I can not afford 12000 guilders ($8000)
for a music instrument, and the band cannot afford it neither. Now
I understand from this list also Vito and Bundy produce b.c.'s,
that apparently are a lot cheaper. Could anybody on this list
give me some opinion about how they are, and how to obtain them
or another reasonably priced bc of another make?

BTW Thanks to all people who gave themselves the trouble to
answer my question of tuesday on circular breathing.

What jumped into my eyes is, that a large portion of people on this
list are in the programming business. I myself are too!

Rien