Klarinet Archive - Posting 000797.txt from 2004/03

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@------.net>
Subj: [kl] Selmer Barbier (was: [kl] He's Everywhere....!)
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 08:33:28 -0500

Don wrote,
>Ps on the Barbiers...I have one I started to sell awhile back.
>I put a new cork on it to spiff it up, and then decided to play
>it one time...and it's a darned good mouthpiece that will set in
>my drawer a little while longer. Can anyone tell me about Barbier?

I own a metal Selmer Barbier (Paris) Bb soprano clarinet. It's
silver-plated over nickel silver. The serial number, 358C, is not in the
same series with the Selmer professional model clarinets, so I don't know
the exact date of my clarinet, but it's tuned to modern pitch and the
appearance matches instruments from the catalogues of the early 1930s. I
bought my Barbier in typical garage horn condition (filthy, with rotten
corks and pads and some bad springs, but no significant damage) for $55 at
a junktiques shop in 1998. It's student quality, listed as the bottom of
the Selmer line in the 1931 catalogue (below the Master and Bundy metal
models). Though it's not something I'd use for everyday practice, it's
well-made and plays all right. (It would probably play better if it had
been professionally overhauled, but I did the work myself.)

Since this instrument came with no mouthpiece, I can't comment about that.
It plays best with an old, no-name, hard rubber mouthpiece from the 1930s
that came with a different old metal clarinet, but the chalumeau goes
seriously flat with a larger, modern mouthpiece.

Lelia Loban
E-mail: lelialoban@------.net
Web site (original music scores as audio or print-out):
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban

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