Klarinet Archive - Posting 000731.txt from 1996/08

From: David Blumberg <reedman@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Greg van Cott's questions about R13 shopping
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 20:20:07 -0400

I'll add my 1 1/2 cents (don't have enough time for 2 cents) to the
discussion. It is the player, not the instrument that determines greatness.
The instrument can feel very different from instrument to instrument and brand
to brand. But no job has ever been offered to the player who's "clarinet was
tuned at the factory". Comfort is a very personal thing, and the instrument
can and does feel different from brand to brand and even horn to horn. I tried
over 50 clarinets (both A and Bb) when I bought my set back in 1988. I sent
back a set that was "hand picked" by the maker of the instruments (boy, was HE
upset..) because I felt that the Brand did not have enough tonal flexibility
for me (tone colors). There is a psycological factor in picking out a
clarinet, and clarinet's do vary from instrument to instrument. I do my
comparisons with my back turned to my students when comparing equipment.
Sometimes the sound is different, sometimes it is "psycoaccoustical" to the
player playing it. Comfort counts!
Good luck,
David C. Blumberg
Reedman@-----.com

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From: Klarinet - Clarinettist's Network on behalf of Nick Shackleton
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 8:19 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list KLARINET
Subject: Re: Greg van Cott's questions about R13 shopping

Well, Dan is ready for another fight!
Yes Dan. Give Stoltzman any clarinet you can find and 90% of the readers of
this message will say "I recognized Stoltzman's tone at once". But I believe
they'd be largely deceiving themselves by confusing style with tone. And the
other side of it is that if we hand my clarinet and yours to a good player
and ask her/him to play them, I'm sure that you and I will both be able to
identify which is which.
Now when you're comparing two R13's it is not so extreme and you'll have to
be very careful to use the same mouthpiece, not to move the reed and so on
to make a good comparison. The differences may be subtle. It may be that you
reject one for poor tone because just one note has a worse tone. This could
be for all sorts of reasons (not because it's made of papyrus or tofu, but
just because there is a rough edge on one tonehole, for instance) but still
it is the case that you are judging the tone.
Of course Dan is right that you don't go and buy the tone, but it is stupid
not to give yourself the best chance. Even if nobody but you hears the
difference, you'll play better if you hear a better sound. Nick