Klarinet Archive - Posting 000587.txt from 1998/10

From: mpiede@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Silver Plated Clarinets
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 00:17:55 -0400

On 10/13/98 22:23:35 you wrote:
>
>On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, James P Reed wrote:
>
>> If a child starting to play a clarinet was to have gotten a used
silver
>> plated or metal clarinet in 1957 or 1958, what would the good models
>> have been? And, do you have any ideas of what they would have cost
>> used?
>
>Well, let's see. I started playing in 1949, and my Pan American
resonite
>(plastic) clarinet cost about $125. Even then, in the part of the world
>where I lived, there were no metal clarinets available which were
regarded
>as "good models." I don't think any were still being manufactured, but
>some were available in pawn shops and from the US government as military
>surplus. I had a friend who played one which he had "inherited" from
his
>father or uncle who had played it about the time of the first World
>War. Our school owned a few which had been bought about the same time,
>and we tried to sell them, but couldn't find any takers. I think we
>eventually sold them to a pawn shop for $5 or $10 each.
>
>By the late 50's, they were even more rare, but still further devalued.
I
>have learned since that there were a few higher-quality metal clarinets
>made, double walled and of silver. However, this was a far cry from the
>metal clarinets I knew.
>
>If the student in your literary work actually had to play on a metal
>clarinet, he or she would have been alternately pitied and ridiculed.
>
>Ed Lacy
>el2@-----.edu
>

Ed this is a gross oversimplification.

I own a pair of old metal clarinets, one a Silver King, the other a Cundy
Bettoney. Both of these instruments have very good intonation. The
quality of the sound on both of them is different than a wooden clarinet,
but in my opinion that makes them neither better nor worse. The cundy is
actually darker than my Strasser (my primary instrument) whereas the
siver king is brighter and LOUDER. I actually prefer the Silver King for
playing Jazz. But for playing classical or legit music my choice would be
a wooden instrument, although I would only hesitate using the silver king
in this environment due to the reaction it would get from my fellow
musicians (your reaction to jim reeds comments is a good example) not due
to the fact that it would sound awful (it most emphatically does not,
just not quite as dark and mellow as the Strasser, although markedly
cleaner than my daughters Bundy using the same mouthpiece as I use with
the silver king).

I believe that a large part of the animosity towards these
instruments came about due to the absolute dreck that usually accompanies
them as mouthpieces.

Mike Piede
mpiede@-----.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org