Klarinet Archive - Posting 000103.txt from 2001/01

From: "Jim Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Left-hand Eb
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 23:43:53 -0500

(I'm running behind on email, so if someone has said this, sorry.)

I have the Ab/Eb key, along with the articulated G#/C#, left ring finger
ring on my Selmers. (Series 9*) They were optional keys that I wanted when
I bought the set (Bb/A) in 1961 -- I think. My understanding was I got
everything from the full Boehm system except for the low Eb/Bb2 key, which I
felt made parts of the instrument play stuffy. So, they were "reasonably
available" by 1961.

I've, through the years, been stuck on various student line bass clarinets
of various makes. None of them (that I remember) have had the left Eb/Ab
key. ("That I remember" being the operative point, here. <g>) The only
bass I remember having the aux. key was a marvelous wood Selmer that was
stolen from my house in Los Angeles many years ago..

Jim Hobby

>They were likely referring to an auxiliary left-hand pinky Ab/Eb,
>located between (rising immediately above) the low E/clarion B and
>low F#/clarion C# keys. This extra key is offered typically only
>on the higher-end models of a given maker's line of clarinets. All
>bass clarinets come with this "extra" key as a standard feature.

>Does anybody know why it took so long for somebody to include it on a
>soprano clarinet model? Was the R-13 Prestige the first Buffet model
>to include it? Was the Concerto the first for Leblanc?

>-- Neil

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