Klarinet Archive - Posting 000672.txt from 1996/12

From: Mitch Bassman <mbassman@-----.com>
Subj: My "new" E-flat
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 11:17:28 -0500

Mike Moors's offer to sell his Noblet Eb has prompted me to tell my
clarinet colleagues and friends about yesterday's exciting purchase.

Some of you will recall that I started a thread last March about a
Penzel-Mueller E-flat clarinet. A friend had recently acquired two E-flat
clarinets: the P-M and a Buffet, both made in the 1930s. I was
considering buying one and had borrowed the Penzel-Mueller first with
plans to borrow the Buffet after a fair trail of the first one.

I liked the Penzel-Mueller very much and tried it for several months, but
I switched with him in October and played the Buffet in a run of Evita.
(First clarinet part doubling Bb and Eb clarinets. It's a great book!)
That switch also gave him the opportunity to try the Penzel-Mueller again.

To make a potentially long story relatively shorter, he decided that he
preferred the Penzel-Mueller and (conveniently) I decided that I preferred
the Buffet. (Actually, if I had been selecting a new instrument from a
stock of a dozen, I probably wouldn't have bought either one. The price
was excellent, however, and the quality was good enough for my use.) He
preferred the narrower bore of the Penzel-Mueller to the wider one of the
Buffet; he said it felt more "flexible" to him. Although the Buffet feels
a bit stuffy on the "closed" tones (E/B and F/C), I found it easier to
play in tune in the altissimo register -- that high register is quite
important on the E-flat clarinet -- but found playing well in tune
difficult with both instruments. The key work of the (obviously pre-R13)
buffet also felt more like my Buffet B-flat and A clarinets. (My friend
plays a Yamaha B-flat, a Buffet A, and now a Penzel-Mueller E-flat!) By
the way, we both preferred the feel of the two Penzel-Mueller E-flat
mouthpieces that came with his Penzel-Mueller, so I kept one of them.

I bought it just because it was there. I didn't really have a need for an
E-flat clarinet -- just a "want." (I've always wanted one of these little
challenges, and now I have one.) Do any of you E-flat experts have advice
on improving intonation? I'm told it was purchased new by the E-flat
player in THE Navy Band in 1935. When he died a few years ago, my friend
(a former member of the Navy Band) bought it from the widow.

Enjoying my new "toy,"
Mitch BAssman
mbassman@-----.com