Klarinet Archive - Posting 000330.txt from 2004/09

From: "Jim & Joyce (lande@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Pair of metal clarinets for sale on E-bay. Said to be Sterling
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 17:40:29 -0400

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org