Klarinet Archive - Posting 000489.txt from 1997/11

From: Ken Bryson <kbryson@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Simon's visit from Vandoren
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 21:18:12 -0500

The A and the B flat the same length! Horrors! I have enough trouble
grabbing the right one as it is. And the sound when I get the wrong
one. . . . This is a very bad idea.

Nancy

peter.stoll@-----.ca wrote:
>
> That was interesting news; about a month ago we had a visit from the new
> technical head of production at Buffet, and some of the confusion about
> their different brands was cleared up. The thin-walled Elite model is
> apparently mostly popular as an A clarinet due to the highly-focussed
> sound (both the A and the Bb are the same length! Something to do with
> resonance keys for low F). The Prestige horns are selected from the
> heaviest billets of wood that come in, hence the denser sound/feeling most
> notice. He also brought a "DG" model Bb, in which some tone-hole
> re-shaping had been tried by the inventor (Daniel Gauthier I think) which
> had a nice smooth sound but was a bit smaller in overall tonal breadth.
> The most interesting thing was a chart which showed the regions (Europe,
> North America, Asia) where each model was most popular. Worth an hour to
> hear all this!
>
> Peter Stoll
> Instructor of Clarinet and Chamber Music
> University of Toronto