Klarinet Archive - Posting 000319.txt from 2004/09

From: "Aad Overeem" <aad.overeem@-----.nl>
Subj: [kl] Re: Pair of metal clarinets for sale on E-bay. Said to be Sterling.
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 08:24:48 -0400

Hi Jim ,

Thanks for correcting me! My fault, as you informed me sometime ago about
the xRay story! ;-
I could swear my Selmer clarinet is made of solid sterling silver as it
has the same looks as my solid sterling-silver Bettoney flute. I examined
the clarinet thoroughly, but could not find a place where the underlying
metal is visible.
Anyway it's a very nice clarinet, although I prefer my Bettoney 'Silva-Bet'.

By the way listmembers! Almost everything I know about metal clarinets I
learned from Jim Lande!
In my opinion he is one of 'the' authorities concerning metal clarinets!

All the best,

Aad Overeem
Netherlands

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim & Joyce (lande@-----.net>
To: <klarinet-digest@-----.org>
Cc: "Aad Overeem" <aad.overeem@-----.nl>
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: Pair of metal clarinets for sale on E-bay. Said to be Sterling.

> Aad Overeem
> >> it surely is made of solid Sterling silver and a wonderful instrument
> with a great 'dark' (;-) sound!
>
> The Selmer metal clarinets have the best metal plating of any clarinets I
am
> familiar with. There are several reasons why I am certain that they are
> plated as opposed to being solid silver. First, the original Selmer sales
> literature states that the instruments are "heavily silver plated
> throughout". Second, I have restored a few and the keys conduct heat like
> nickel keys, not like solid silver. Finally, I once chatted with an older
> repair guy who was selling a metal Selmer on eBay. The finish was so good
> he wondered if it was solid silver. He took it to a fairly sophisticated
> shop that used some sort of xRay technique to determine the thickness of
the
> plating. I forget the precise thickness, but the shop said that the
plating
> was a lot thicker than they had seen on a musical instrument.
>
> You can see that the case was designed to hold a full boehm Bb as well as
> the B. And I already have a full boehm Selmer in Bb. Gosh, wouldn't that
> be nice.
>
> Leeson's Lemma is very important. It explains why wooden clarinets are
all
> painted black. Apparently wood clarinets just don't sound bright enough
> without a little help.
>
> cheers
> Jim Lande
>

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