Klarinet Archive - Posting 000910.txt from 1998/05

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] 1957 Selmer Centered Tone
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 22:39:14 -0400

At 08:42 PM 5/15/98 -0300, you wrote:
>Ken,
>Your Centered Tone has a .587" bore. The Series 9 starting in 1960 is
>.584". I've played both and definitely recommend the stock C.T. barrel
>with a precisely matched mouthpiece bore. The Series 9 barrel is an
>attempt to mate with the small bored mouthpieces which by 1960 had
>become the norm. It's stuffy. With the right bored mouthpiece
>you'll find your middle twelfths are excellent [always try your B flat-F
>interval , unlipped].

I gather a .587 is a fairly large-bore horn? The instrument is funny about
mouthpieces. I own three: the one that came with the instrument (Selmer
HS*), and two Vandorens: a 5JB and a B45. The instrument seems to "like"
the jazz mouthpiece a great deal, but for whatever reason the B45 is a
pain. I don't know if this is the mouthpiece, the player, or a mismatch
between mouthpiece and instrument. The clarinet seems to perform best with
the Selmer mouthpiece: nice and even all the way up and down the scales.

>Yeah, the Selmer people are pretty useless. Hell, I doubt if any of
>them are musicians, let alone clarinetists.

It's a shame, really. I love the instrument but the company's attitude
seems to be total indifference.

Ken

"The East River. But it was not a river at all. Merely a column of water
connecting the upper harbor to the Sound. Yet everyone called it a river.
They chose not to think about it. They clung to the surface of things."
--Peter Quinn, "Banished Children of Eve"
Ken Wolman kwolman@-----.com/SoHo/Gallery/1649

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