Klarinet Archive - Posting 001249.txt from 2000/05

From: "Tony Wakefield" <tony-wakefield@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Shame on Leblanc
Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 14:25:08 -0400

Hi All,
Just over a year ago I tried 2 Concertos Bb`s, here in U.K. I spent 1 1/2
hours blowing on them - both new, and did not feel comfortable at all. I was
so surprised, <and> disappointed, because they did not feel much different
to my 40 year old Leblanc LL`s. There were tonal differences, and also
resistance differences across the registers. Some tuning too was also
erratic; quite poor on open G thru` Bb. Probably not unfixable, tho` I would
have still had to use an abundance of "worked at" left & right hand
resonance fingerings. There was also a lot of spring tension inconsistency,
with some little finger keys being less or more easy to depress; now that
<is> bad. My sales chappie, who I know well, (and work with occasionally)
eventually had cause to comment (in a friendly manner) on the time elapsing.
His next remark was my life saver. "Have you tried the "Opus" " he said.
"No" came the reply. He said, "it`s a different beast". So I waited for a
couple of minutes in the playing booth. He returned with the said "Opus"
assembled. After no more than 5 minutes my money was on the table! I have
had no problems with it, save having the thumb rest raised, and a little
discolouring on the keywork. But then there has always been discoloring due
to the high content of acid in the fingers.
Best of luck everyone.
Tony W.
P.S. My Microsoft spellchecker advises me to use "discolouring". How
strange.

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