Klarinet Archive - Posting 000422.txt from 2002/10

From: George Kidder <gkidder@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Old Kohlert low-C bass
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:10:50 -0400

Mark and all,

Done that - I always start there - with the usual results. A search on
"Kohlert" turned up 101 items, many exact duplicates of each other (regular
and digest versions?) and many where the response had done way off thread -
witness a long description of the history of Finland with several posts
leading back to some mention of Kohlert. Probably 10 of the items were
germane to my question, and of these, 5 said something useful.

It was interesting to know that the "4 thumb keys" keywork is also found on
the Amati, although this in no way implies a lineage nor a quality, except
to the extent that if this was a Kohlert signature, Amati clearly did not
regard it as the kiss of death to be associated with Kohlert. One of the
useful comments was that on a certain Kohlert bass which he had tried, the
writer's mouthpiece tenon was too LARGE for the socket. Whereas I have
just the reverse problem. And I was interested in the idea of lengthening
the neck (or replacing it with a very expensive adjustable one) and with
Dave Spegelthal comments about modifications to the lower register key
tube. I will keep all of these in mind, for sure.

As expected, the comments on the general quality of Kohlert instruments
cover the complete range, and are not useful taken out of context (as the
archives are) and without being able to respond. And the quality probably
changed over the years. Langwell seems to give the company as "flourished
... 1880 - 1945", and the "Czecho-Slovakia" entry would date it later than
1918. The 5-digit serial number compared to the reported number 10 times
as high would indicate something early in this period, IFF (a big if) the
S/N's were incremented by 1's without gaps.

So my questions remain: 1) Are mouthpieces available with an internal
diameter and tenon size compatible with this older instrument? 2) Is it
worth the effort of restoring? The rest of the text is to put these
questions in context, and to identify the instrument.

As before, I appreciate your (pl) comments.

George

At 11:21 AM 10/15/02, you wrote:
>Search the Clarinet BBoard (http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard) for
>extensive discussions on Kohlert.
>
>Mark C.
>
>
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