Klarinet Archive - Posting 000640.txt from 1996/11

From: dgilbert <dgilbert@-----.COM>
Subj: introduction and questions
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 22:12:27 -0500

Greetings,

My name is Dave Gilbert, I've been following your(our) list for a few
weeks now and have decided to plunge in. I mostly play sax in big band
format & double on clarinet & flute. A rather typical combination for a
big band jazz sax player.

My question: in saxophones I have discovered over the years that my
tonal preferences are best met w/ older vintage Conns ( silver and gold
plate sop. from 1928; gold plate alto from 1921, tenor from the late
40's ) All of the horns have
a big, sweet,dark, singing tone which still has good projection ( a
necessity in big band).

And now to clarinet: until last year I was playing on a 1950's era
student horn(plastic) which had a metal liner in the upper joint...Good
projection, but quite weak on intonation.

I have recently acquired a Buffet wood (French made) w/ a serial # 1761
...sometime around 1928. The wood is perfect. Meridian Winds performed
tenon replacement at center joint(a sleeve), filed the tone holes which
were worn very concave and new pads. The horn became a little sharper as
a result of the tone hole work.

The horn seems to have a sweet singing tone ( however not very dark).I
have heard references on this group to old clarinets being "blown out".
Is this from saliva?
Is there a change to the bore? What are the differences between this
Buffett and the
R-13 I hear so much about? Are older clarinets not as "good" as older
saxes?
I've spoken w/ people about building the tone-holes back up to original.
Suggestions? Am currently playing this w/ 1950's vintage HS** and Queen
#3 for legit
and Vandoren 5JB and Zonda #3 for jazz. Again the projection issue.
Is this horn worth the efforts and $ I'm sinking into it?

Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Dave