Klarinet Archive - Posting 000649.txt from 1998/01

From: njs5@-----.uk (Nick Shackleton)
Subj: wooden bells
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 10:11:21 -0500

Dan Leeson asks when metal bells for basset horns and bass clarinets came in.
For basset horns the answer is easy: the earliest basset horns known all had
metal bells (I couldn't say offhand when were the earliest basset horns with
wooden bells).
As regards the bass clarinet I believe that the modern shape upturned metal
bell may have been invented by Sax. Certainly in Paris Buffet jeune made his
earliest bass clarinets with a wooden bell and his later Sax-influenced
model with an up-turned metal bell. But on the other hand the very earliest
bass clarinets also had flared metal bells like the earliest basset horns.
I think that Steve Trier was probably inspired by German makers such as
Heckel who made good instruments with wooden bells.
Nick