Klarinet Archive - Posting 000217.txt from 2005/03

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Interesting ebay item
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 16:44:29 -0500

At 08:13 AM 3/5/2005 -0500, Lelia Loban wrote:
>Bill Hausmann wrote,
> >>My Walter W. Mueller (later Penzel-Mueller, I believe)
> >>"The Empire State" metal clarinet, an intermediate-priced
> >>one at best, is in five pieces, but it is still a relatively rare
> >>phenomenon. I think ALL Selmer Paris metal clarinets
> >>were made that way, though.
>
>All 17 of the metal clarinets (different types of Master Model and Bundy,
>in both Albert and Boehm systems) sold in the1928 Selmer catalogue come
>apart at the center and bell joints. However, sometime between 1928 and
>the 1932 catalogue (which I may have called the 1931 catalogue in previous
>messages; it was published in November, 1931), Selmer introduced some
>cheaper metal clarinet models with one-piece bodies.
>
>My Selmer "Barbier" (Paris) model 1310M Bb soprano clarinet (17 keys, 6
>rings), silver-plated over nickel silver, is student quality, but has a
>center joint and a bell joint. For all that it was an inexpensive
>instrument at the time ($85 on p. 29 in the 1932 catalogue), it's nicely
>made and plays pretty well. A cheaper Barbier, also silver-plated over
>nickel silver (17 keys, 6 rings), model 1308M, sold for $65 on p. 29 with
>the specification, "Does not come apart at center or bell joint."
>
>By the 1935 catalogue, the model 1308M had been discontinued. The 1935
>catalogue lists, on p. 19, the Barbier model 1310M, in nickel silver with
>silver plate (17 keys, 6 rings), with the specification, "Does not come
>apart at center or bell joint...." That model of Barbier sold for $85, the
>same as before, but for the same price on the same model number, the
>customer no longer got the center and bell joints. On the same page,
>Selmer's bottom of the line at the time, the Raymond model 1410M, nickel
>silver with silver plate (17 keys, 6 rings), is listed with the
>specification, "Does not come apart at middle point [sic.] or at bell."
>The 1935 retail price for the Raymond was $42.50.

Actually, I need to correct myself. My Empire State does NOT come apart at
the bell, but only at the center and barrel.

But by "Selmer Paris" I meant "Selmer Paris," and did not intend to include
the lesser brands imported and/or sold through Selmer's US retail
operation, later to become Selmer USA and ultimately (so far) Conn-Selmer.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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