Klarinet Archive - Posting 001211.txt from 2000/12

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Mazzeo System, Omega Mechanism, Stubbins Mechanism, Buffet S-1
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 13:48:43 -0500

THE MAZZEO Bb MECHANISM

I had the opportunity to examine and play a Bb/A pair of Mazzeo clarinets
played by Al Nudo, a Mazzeo student.

The basic Mazzeo mechanism (shown in Brymer's book at p. 54) extends the rod
carrying the left hand rings to a post above the throat A key, where a cup is
attached to cover the hole normally opened by the next-to-top trill key. The
trill key itself becomes a lever that open the pad.

A 7th ring is added, for the left ring finger, creating a "fork" fingering
for Eb/Bb.

The redesigned Bb key is opened by levers attached to the right hand rings
and also to the left middle and ring finger rings. Thus you can play an
acoustically proper, clear and resonant throat Bb by opening the A key and
pressing any or all of the lower 5 rings.

The thumb ring (changed to a pad) operates a lever that closes the Bb pad
when you play in the clarion register.

Since the register key vent is no longer used for Bb, it is moved
substantially higher, improving clarion register intonation and eliminating
the undertone "grunt" often found on A clarinets, particularly the Buffet
R-13.

WHY IT DIDN'T CATCH ON

The Mazzeo Bb mechanism is mechanically reliable and solves a persistent
problem. It failed to catch on for, I think, several reasons.

1. It requires a change in basic fingering. While this is certainly
possible, and in fact relatively easy for good players, it's a mental hazard
for ordinary players. It's made worse because the standard Bb fingering is
completely unusable due to the higher position of the register vent.

2. Your fingers must be all the way off the rings to play open G and throat
Ab and A. This eliminates the "resonance" fingerings for these notes. While
the Mazzeo instrument may have reduced the need for these fingerings, it
didn't necessarily eliminate their usefulness for voicing and intonation.

3. It eliminates the trick universally taught to beginners to ease crossing
the register break -- keeping the right hand fingers down while playing the
throat A.

4. It eliminates another trick taught to beginners -- keeping the right hand
fingers down for slurs from low notes to open G and back.

5. It keeps you from holding down one or more of the right hand fingers to
steady the instrument while playing open G.

6. The mechanism was put on plastic Bundy instruments to encourage its use
by beginners, but beginning band directors (not necessarily clarinetists)
don't know what it does.

7. There were few or no intermediate instruments. A student wanting a
"step-up" clarinet had buy the top of the line Selmer Mazzeo Personal Model
or nothing.

8. To get the good Bb, your thumb had to be all the way off the pad.
Pushing on the pad even slightly started to close the Bb hole.

9. The Boston clarinet section played Selmer instruments. Thus Selmer was
the company that put out Mazzeo instruments. Since Mazzeo endorsed Selmer,
he had no influence with other makers. Thus other makers had no incentive to
retool.

10. The Selmer Centered Tone model (on which the Mazzeo model was based) had
a relatively large cylindrical bore and cylindrical tone holes. It was
noticeably different from the Buffet R-13, with its smaller polycylindrical
bore and undercut tone holes. The average Buffet R-13 was, for most
professional players, better suited to orchestral work than the average
Selmer Centered Tone (which was considered better for jazz). Certainly
almost all orchestral players played Buffet. Also, Hans Moenig worked
miracles on the Buffet R-13, setting up instruments for almost all the top
players, and he didn't like to work on Selmers (and eventually refused to do
so). This didn't hurt the players in Boston (who got custom-made,
hand-finished instruments directly from Selmer), but it left other players
out in the cold

11. The prestigious orchestras required the entire section to play the same
model instrument. Gino Cioffi in Boston played Selmer, so the whole section
switched. To be considered for Boston, you had to play Selmer, too. (The
same thing happened in the Cleveland flute section. Maurice Sharp came in
with a gold Haynes flute, and the section players had to get rid of their
Powells. My old flute teacher had a wonderful Powell she got from a
Cleveland player who wasn't allowed to use it.) Since almost all orchestra
players played Buffet, you couldn't afford to play an instrument that, just
by its trademark, would disqualify you from most important auditions.

12. Buffet had long since been locked in on the original R-13 design for the
important U.S. market and could not consider publicizing even small changes.
Almost all U.S. players used the R-13 and went to Moenig. Also, the Mazzeo
mechanism was patented, and when the patent expired after 17 years, the
publicity had faded.

13. Selmer muddied the waters by simultaneously marketing another Bb
mechanism on its Omega model. The Stubbins SK mechanism also came out at
about that time, further fragmenting the market.

Incidentally, Brymer makes a mistake in describing the Mazzeo mechanism on
pp. 53-55 of his book. The holes for G, Ab and A are exactly the same as on
a standard instrument, and the tone quality of these notes is not changed or
improved. Although you can play an open G and press one of the lowest 5
rings and get a sort of A, it's of poor quality and not usable for much of
anything -- like playing G and pressing the next to top trill key.

OTHER CHANGES ON THE BASIC MAZZEO MODEL

The thumb ring was changed to a pad.

The register key was extended at the bottom and curved halfway around to the
right of the thumb pad.

The bell had very little flare on the outside and no metal ring on the
bottom. I believe it had a different profile on the inside. This made the
instrument lighter and decreased the blaring "bell tone" quality on low E and
clarion B.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS ON THE MAZZEO "PERSONAL" MODEL

Mazzeo make a number of other changes and improvements on his "Personal"
model instrument.

- Articulated C#/G#, including the extra "sliver" key between the left index
and middle finger rings.

- Alternate G#/Eb lever for the left little finger.

- Low Eb (on both the Bb and A instruments), which further improved the E/B,
completely eliminating the "bell tone."

- Alternate low Eb lever for the left little finger, placed to the left of
the G#/Eb lever and above the E/B and F#/C# levers.

- An adaptation of the "patent" trill mechanism for E/F# to B/C# used on
"Albert" system instruments. You held down both keys and lifted the E/B key
for F#/C#. This gave a perfect trill and eliminated contrary finger movement
in scale passages in 2 sharps or more and the extreme flat keys. It also had
a big advantage over the patent system -- you could play E/B by pressing that
single lever, without having to hold down the F/C lever. Except for its
complexity, this would be an ideal addition to the standard instrument, since
it doesn't eliminate any normal fingerings and makes a difficult change easy.

- Pressing either little finger G#/Eb key (with the right hand rings up)
opened the C#/G# key. This gave full duplication of the little finger keys
and meant that you couldn't get caught in those "you can't get there from
here" traps, and so never had to slide. The problem was that to make the
connecting lever mechanism between the two keys reliable, the spring for the
G#/Eb key had to be very stiff, even on the hand-finished Personal model.

Mazzeo never stopped tinkering and inventing. In his method book, there's a
picture and description of an instrument with a dozen or more additional
modifications. An amazing sight.

THE OMEGA MECHANISM

In the mid-50s, Selmer put out a super-deluxe version of the Centered Tone
instrument, called the Omega (no relation to the current U.S. made
intermediate instrument), charging the unheard-of price of $500 (when a
standard Centered Tone went for around $200). It had fancy carving and
hand-selected wood, etc., but the only difference in mechanism was for the
throat Bb.

There is a photo of this mechanism on Sneezy, accessible from the Clarinet
Home Page, along with a description that I wrote several years ago and with
further commentary.

The register key was attached by a toggle mechanism to two keys, one for the
register vent (placed in the acoustically correct position) and the other an
additional hole at the same height as the next-to-top side key. Both keys
had springs that pulled them open, but were overpowered by a stronger spring
on the register key.

The lower (Bb) mechanism was also attached to the thumb ring and was held
closed when the thumb ring was pressed. Thus when your thumb was on the ring
and you pressed the register key, the high register vent opened. (Selmer
supplied three vent tubes in different diameters, with a special wrench for
changing them. I played Omega instruments for several years, and I could
never discern any difference.)

When you pressed the register key with your thumb off the ring, the
relatively strong spring for the Bb pad overpowered the relatively weak
spring for the register pad, holding it down and letting the Bb pad come open.

This made a perfect throat Bb and gave excellent clarion response and
intonation. However, it had two significant problems.

First, it relied on springs rather than positive lever action to open the
keys. Worse, it relied on a strong spring overcoming a weak spring. Even
the slightest stickiness made the thing malfunction. Selmer put cork pads on
the keys and even supplied strips of sandpaper to remove gunk, but you could
never quite trust it.

Second, you had to get all the way off the register key to have the mechanism
work right. If you even brushed against the thumb ring, both keys opened
halfway, producing an awful, unfocused quarter-tone. This meant dreadful
gymnastics for your thumb when you played, for example, the back-and-forth
Bb/B passage in the Debussy Premiere Rapsodie.

THE STUBBINS "SK" MECHANISM

The Stubbins SK mechanism is shown clearly on the eBay posting discussed last
week and also in Brymer, fig. 16. The register vent is placed well up on the
upper joint, at the acoustically proper point, and an additional vent for
throat Bb is attached by a lever to the throat A key. When the A key is
closed, the extra vent is held closed. When the A key is open, a spring
opens the extra vent.

Brymer, at pp. 52-53, says that the SK mechanism closes the register vent for
the throat Bb. This is incorrect. The vent stays open, and the additional
hole provides extra venting, improving the sound and intonation of the Bb.
However, it does not produce as pure a Bb as the Mazzeo or Omega mechanism,
because the open register vent has to be compensated for.

The big advantage of the SK mechanism is that it improves a bad note and
operates automatically without interfering with any of the traditional
fingerings. The patent has long expired, and in fact the design has been
adapted by Luis Rossi and Steve Fox as an option on their instruments.

THE BUFFET S-1

The Buffet S-1 was an early attempt to refine the R-13 design, particularly
the problematic placement of the register vent. I played a number of samples
of the S-1 when it came out and hated them all. The clarion was certainly
better in tune and more reliably emitted, but the throat Bb was unusable.
Worse, they changed the bore, either as a parallel "improvement" or to
compensate for the changed register vent position. The result was that every
one of them was, for me, impossibly stuffy and dull sounding.

To my mind, that was why the S-1 died -- not because American players were
hidebound and unwilling to try anything new, but because the S-1 didn't have
the "Buffet" sound and response.

The Buffet RC is, I think, the S-1 with further improvements. Certainly the
RC plays very well, with better intonation and evenness than the R-13. The
tone is now as good as the R-13, but noticeably different.

The RC, and also the Leblanc Opus/Concerto and Selmer Signature, are
wonderful instruments, with exceptional evenness of scale and intonation. I
still prefer my R-13 and am willing to live with its problems for the sake of
a tone quality I can't find elsewhere.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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