Klarinet Archive - Posting 000729.txt from 2003/02

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Rebuilding NEW clarinets.
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 13:51:04 -0500

Albert Nemiroff wrote:

[snip]

>Would the purchasers of new instruments from
> custom builders like Guy Chadash, Stephan Fox, and Luis Rossi (alphabetical
> order) care to comment. In reading between the lines on this site, they
> seem to be very happy.

I can only comment on Steve Fox whose medium bore basset horn I have had
now for about a year.

With respect to the intonation, I play the instrument exactly as I got
it -- i.e., without any changes to the tone holes with tape or anything
else -- and the intonation is the best thing about the instrument. I was
playing the Mozart Requiem in San Francisco with Karen Sremak who bought
my two previous instruments, one of which was the basset horn of Rosario
Mazzeo who sold it to me after he left the BSO. And that instrument was
specially made for him (in the Mazzeo system) by Selmer, though heavily
modified by Rosario through the addition of a pile of keys to improve
the dreadful low note fingering of Selmer basset horns of the 60s.

At one point Karen and I were playing the basset horn duet music of the
"Recordare" (Karen 1st, me 2nd), and in a moment of pause she said,
"Listen to that intonation!! It's sensational. Never heard anything like
it."

And I think that the pitch of the many of my notes are in tune on many
basset horns -- though European basset horns are almost always made to
be in tune at European pitch which makes the whole instrument too high
and a change of bocal doesn't fix the American problem -- but two notes
in particular on my instrument give me special pleasure: the throat tone
B-flat in its tradition fingering (which is clear as a bell and in
tune), but also in the bizarre alternative fingering of a low-E-flat
with the register key on. That is one of my favorite fingerings for
B-flat but which never worked satisfactorily on either of my full-Boehm
instruments (both B-flat and A clarinets) or my low C bass clarinet and
on which a B-flat fingered in this fashion could not be used professionally.

The instrument required some regulation when I got it, but I've never
gotten an instrument from anywhere that did not require regulation.
When I lived in Paris and bought several instruments there, they all
required regulation back at the factory. Same thing with a Buffet I
bought there. Besides, an instrument coming from Toronto to Northern
California would be expected to undergo changes due to the environmental
differences which include temperature, humidity, average daily
temperature, and elevation.

The time for delivery of my instrument was delayed partly because of the
manufacturer's busy schedule and partly because those on whom Fox was
dependent (such as the double gold plating on everything but the peg -
which I would loved to have had plated, too) required rework because it
was not satisfactory.

After receiving the instrument and playing it for a while, I sent it
back to Fox who did the work without fee, as I would have expected. But
the bigger problem came from U.S. and Canadian customs who adamantly
refused the dismiss the import charge into Canada, and a second import
charge to get it back in the U.S. because the idea of manufacturer's
warranty is unknown by either group (or else well-known and is used as
an opportunity for further income).

The best part of the instrument is that whoever looks at it drops dead
with envy both because of the looks and the sound character, which I
achieve with one of Clarke Fobes student mouthpieces. I bought two of
his expensive one and they were very nice, but the student model knocked
my brains out.

On January 1, 2007, the instrument will be put up for sale because,
after the Mozart 250th, I will have had my lifetime's fill of clarinet
playing.

I hate the case that the instrument came with because it doesn't hold
all the things I like to bring with me, such as a sandwich, a crossword
puzzle book, two or three pair of glasses, and chapters of my fiction
novel that I am still working on, which, if it ever gets published, is
going to be read by every clarinet player because is it about K. 622 and
K. 581.

Oh yes. I asked Steve for a nice wood, because I love beautiful-looking
things. But if he had said, "I only make those out of metal," that
would have been fine and I would had the entire body double gold plated.
Glass, probably not, but not because of sound character. It turned out
to be cocobolo, which I understand is dangerous to use when making
instruments because the dust may cause problems. But maybe that is an
old-wive's tale.

I am confident that I would have been equally satisfied if I had gotten
such an instrument from Chadash or Rossi, but Fox came highly
recommended and I took the chance. I don't know if either Chadash or
Rossi make basset horns.

The single issue about which I am unsatisfied on the Fox b.h. is the
placement of the thumb low D-flat. I find my hand awkwardly placed when
I have to use that note (which is very rare in any case). Also, I would
love to have had a second fingering for the low C. As a general rule,
every single note below low E in a basset horn should have two distinct
fingerings, but that is a personal preference. The instrument works
well without having achieved that goal.

--
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**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
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