Klarinet Archive - Posting 000746.txt from 2002/03

From: The Guy on the Couch <jnohe@-----.Edu>
Subj: [kl] Bass Stuff
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 17:09:55 -0500

After an incredibly hectic last three weeks, I've decided to actually post
again. Pretty much, I'd let the last 500 Klarinet mails pile up in my
inbox, and now that it's spring break...I became excessively lazy and
deleted nearly all of them without reading. I DID, however, skim the
intonation ones. Lot of stuff I already knew, but it was fun hearing
different viewpoints. Man, I LOVE this list!

I do have business to discuss...but first a quick welcome to Dallas, whom
I occasionally bicker with on the BassClar list (okay okay, we USUALLY get
along...*grin*).

Three weeks ago, I had the fun and enjoyment of trying out a couple of
brand new bass clarinets. Our department has finally succumbed to my
continual begging and has decided to purchase a Low C bass clarinet. Our
department firmly believes in supporting local music business, and as a
result, we recieved a trial Selmer Low C for me to play with (the owner of
our local business is a clarinetist who insists upon Selmer). For
comparison sake, however, I also approached my personal repairman, who had
purchased a brand new Buffet Low C in December.

Oh, the joy...the revelry. Oh, the VIBRATIONS!!!

Both horns were excellent, especially in comparison with the two horns I'd
previously had the most experience with in the past five years: a 1983
Prestige and a late '80s Buffet intermediate. The low notes came out
beautifully on both Low C horns, and played a little less resistance. The
Selmer, however, did feel considerably stuffier than the Buffet.

The Selmer has a more classic neck angle, and excellent low notes. It's
sound is big, but can be pushed to ...hmm, I guess the word might
be...raucous? It can be pushed too far with great ease. Clarion B, C,
C#, and D were about 10 cents sharp on this particular example, and
playing up to altissimo C came easily, and fairly well in tune. Tone
above altissimo G gets just a little reedy. One BAD quirk of this
specimen, however, was the tendency for the double register mechanism to
get confused when hopping around the break involving Bb. Sometimes the
wrong vent would open, or both would open briefly and then close
partially, or some other weird malfunction, and the result was a throat Bb
that was HORRIBLE half the time, or EXTREMELY sharp clarion Cs and such.
After two days of working my way around this, I learned to finesse the
register key just right in order to stop this from occuring most of the
time.

One REALLY good thing about this instrument was the key/hand position.
The keys were placed in such a way that it felt like I was holding a
beefer. I didn't have to spread my fingers at all.

The Buffet, I only had for a period of 18 hours (unlike the Selmer, which
I had for two weeks), and those 18 hours were spent in revelry. The neck
is at a sharper angle (not nearly as sharp as the famed...or should I say
infamous?...Bay necks), and felt a little more comfortable to my tastes.
The instrument had NO stuffiness ANYWHERE in it (unlike the Selmer, which
made my set up feel as if it were more suited to oboe), and played with a
very smooth sound from low C to altissimo C. Altissimo tuning needed a
bit of play to find fingerings that were more suited to this horn. The
intonation was better overall than the Selmer (but not by a lot), and my
word - three fingerings for low D??? *laughs* What really amazed me about
this instrument was the throat register and clarion register...the throat
doesn't sound ANYTHING like a throat. The tones are pure and well matched
to both the chalumeau and clarion registers, and are impeccably tuned
(both the register key and side Bb were beautiful and matched). The
clarion register didn't have a hint of airiness or reediness (something I
can usually deal with myself, but on this instrument, I didn't have to!),
and played without ANY effort.

Both were good instruments, but I've got to hand it to Buffet...for me,
it's just the better horn. I suddenly find myself agreeing with everyone
who's been talking about how Buffet has pulled ahead in the past two years
(not that I ever disagreed, because I had no basis of comparison), and so
I add my reccommendation to theirs: Buffet has the better instrument at
the moment.

However, if I couldn't get a Buffet, I'd certainly be happy with the
Selmer.

Hope SOMEONE out there found this little field report useful...

J. Shouryu Nohe
Grad Assistant, New Mexico State University
"I think we have a ghost in our house." - Kaycee Nicole
"I should probably be playing Buffet." - Steve Moore

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