Klarinet Archive - Posting 000104.txt from 2004/04

From: "Rupert Kahn" <Rupert.Kahn@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] B&H London & Paris
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 17:31:35 -0400

I wonder if anyone can help me out with some background information about my
clarinet.

It's a Boosey and Hawkes "London and Paris". According to both the seller
and the B&H forum these were prototypes that were made for B&H by a foreign
manufacturer based on the 1010 bore and dating from the 1950s. But the
official response from B&H forum couldn't identify the country of origin let
alone the manufacturer.

The instrument shares the smooth bands of B&H top end clarinets, but unlike
home built instruments has a band on the bell end. The tenon joints do not
have metal tip bands but are sheathed in a black plastic-like material. The
barrel is lined with the same or similar material. There is no adjustment
screw on the A/G# throat note link. Compared with other B&H instruments
this feels very light and rather thin and fragile as if there is much less
wood in it. The circumfrence at the speaker vent is about 1/4 inch less
than my old B&H Emporer which feels like a Routemaster bus in comparison.
It came with a Pillinger Mouthpiece and the serial number is on all four
parts not just the two main joints

I like this instrument a lot though I don't play enough to be able to claim
that I'm really testing it. I don't know if its the thinness of the shell,
but I have a much stronger sense that the instrument, or the air in it, is
vibrating rather than producing a sound, it's extra feedback that I wasn't
used to on the Emporer.

So can anyone say anything about these instruments. Who made them? Why did
B&H not make them themselves? Are the plasticy bits original or added to
rescue/preserve a fragile instrument?

Any comments welcome.

Rupert Kahn
Derbyshire

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