Klarinet Archive - Posting 000508.txt from 1995/10

From: Mitch Bassman <mbassman@-----.COM>
Subj: Update: Malerne Bass Clarinet
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 21:39:01 -0400

Last week I posted a request for information about a Malerne bass
clarinet. This is a Thank-You message for the several people who
responded. Two of you posted to the list, and several more sent personal
replies.

Since I rarely play bass and hadn't played one for seven or eight months,
I kept the instrument for a week and worked with it on several occasions
to give my bass clarinet chops a chance to come back sufficiently so I
could give the instrument a fair chance to satisfy me. (I'll share
information about my setup in a follow-up message in a few days.)

Bottom line: I decided not to buy it. Why? Well, ... there were several
reasons. Recall that this is a plastic student model instrument. Perhaps
my main concern was that I was unable to get the big, full bass clarinet
sound in the low register that I was always able to get on instruments
that I borrowed when I needed them for a concert (even on other non-wooden
instruments); the tone sounded ... (how can I put this?) thin and
unfocused. The throat F# (left hand first finger) was particularly weak,
perhaps because the tone hole covered by the thumb key was not well
vented; when I used the alternate (thumb and side keys) fingering, I could
get a much better tone. (Perhaps that could have been corrected.) Also,
this pre-WWII model doesn't have a whisper key (is that a relatively
recent addition to the bass clarinet?), so I had to adjust the fingerings
in the altissimo range starting from e'''. (As I said, I don't often play
the bass. Is this common?) But what a solid c''''! Additionally, I
experienced some significant tuning problems; I suppose I could have
eventually learned to adjust for the tuning idiosyncrasies, but since I
don't play bass often, I'd probably have to relearn every time I picked it
up. And, as I mentioned in my original message, it doesn't have a peg;
but that surely could have been added.

I understand that Malerne made more advanced models that may have been
more satisfying.

Anyway, I thought about my decision carefully, because I was afraid that I
was passing up a real bargain. (For $350 maybe I should have bought it
and then turned around and sold it for more.) In the end I decided not to
buy it because (1) I don't really need a bass clarinet right now (recall
that that a mutual clarinet colleague had simply mentioned my name to the
seller as someone who might possibly be interested) and (2) this
instrument just didn't feel like the right one for me.

I thought you should know the outcome.

--Mitch Bassman