Klarinet Archive - Posting 000762.txt from 2004/08

From: kurtheisig@-----.net
Subj: Re: [kl] Eb mouthpieces?
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 06:46:22 -0400

Lelia---you might try wrapping your cat in a large bathtowel---old country trick for feisty cats.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lelia Loban <lelialoban@-----.net>
Sent: Aug 28, 2004 9:51 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Eb mouthpieces?

I wrote,
>...I bought the second Eb clarinet for its lovely old hard
>rubber mouthpiece marked, "France," with a close, classical
>facing. That great mouthpiece came with a silver-plated
>metal Eb clarinet, marked, >"American Standard High Grade
>Cleveland Mus. Inst. Co."
[snip]
>...So, when I started doing research on what might work with
>this American Standard eefer without breaking the piggy bank,
>it occurred to me that old H. N. White saxophones often play
>well with older models of Selmer mouthpieces.

Bill Hausmann wrote,
>>Curiously, your "American Standard" clarinet was probably
>>made by H. N. White. That company WAS located in
>>Cleveland, and that was one of their lesser brands, circa
>>1930-40.

Yes. I've heard that the American Standards that don't have the H. N.
White name on them anywhere date from the 1930s to about 1940, as you say.
That's what made me think a Selmer mouthpiece might work. (Forgot to
mention that there is at least one old H. N. White sax that *won't* play in
tune with a new Selmer mouthpiece, btw: the King Saxello, introduced in the
mid-1920s. The original mouthpiece on my Saxello is the smallest soprano
sax mouthpiece I've ever seen.) During the Depression, H. N. White was
maintaining the prestige of his brand name by omitting it from the economy
models. At some point between about 1940 and the 1953 catalogue, the
company changed that policy and started engraving the American Standard as
an H. N. White model. I have the 1953 H. N. White band instrument
catalogue. I think that's the last year before the company spun off King
and Cleveland as separate brand names (rather than model names). H. N.
White had died by then. His widow was running the company, with her
picture in the front of the catalogue. That 1953 catalogue advertises King
as the top model, Cleveland as the intermediate model and American Standard
as a beginner instrument. I've never tried one of those later H. N. White
American Standards. My early one is a usable instrument, solidly made and
nice-looking, compared with the trashiness of many "no-name" student
clarinets from the Depression era, but the best metal clarinets of that
period have better intonation than this one, which has wide twelfths.

Not practicing eefers or other clarinets right now, though, out of
consideration for Shadow Cat, whose balance and coordination suddenly
deteriorated two days ago. She went off her feed, too, and seemed
lethargic. The veterinarian says she's probably got either an inner ear
infection or a brain tumor. The ear infection, if any, is hard to
diagnose, way down in an odd little third earlet where nothing ever looks
quite normal, at the outer base of her right ear. (The veterinarian calls
the extra earlet a congenital deformity. Shadow Cat claims it's her device
for listening in on message traffic from the underworld and outer space.)
We're treating the possible ear infection, keeping fingers crossed and
waiting for test results. Even an ear infection isn't trivial in a cat
who's nearly 16 years old, but I'm cautiously optimistic because, after an
anti-inflammatory shot and two days of oral antibiotics, she's alert,
eating eagerly again, and steadier on her feet. She doesn't mind eating
the medicine ground up and mixed in with her food, fortunately, because
holding her still while forcing a pill down her throat is the two-person
job from hell! Anyway, I'm sparing her the screech-stick noise for now.

Thanks to Chuck Currie for the kind words....

Lelia Loban
America can do better: Kerry and Edwards in 2004!

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