Klarinet Archive - Posting 000000.txt from 2007/11

From: Alicia Byer <aliciabyer@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] pro horn suggestions
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:11:20 -0400

Hi everybody,

I'm sure you get these kinds of questions all the time, so if this post
is incredibly out of line, or incredibly boring, feel free to ignore it...

I'm in the market for a new professional clarinet, and I'm wondering
what to get! I just graduated with my BA in composition, and played
clarinet throughout college, but never upgraded from my intermediate
instrument that I used in high school, since I wasn't a performance
major. Now, I've come into a little bit of cash and I want to finally
move up to a real instrument. I've tried the Buffet R13 and one or two
other Buffets (I can't remember which) and a couple of the Leblancs
(Concerto and Opus I think?) at a music store that I worked at, and I
really favored the Leblancs at the time because they seemed easier to
play and less stuffy. I mostly play experimental/new music and improv,
so I need something extremely responsive and even, but still flexible,
and I prefer a dark, covered, centered tone. I'm not a fan of lots of
"ring". I looked at the Concerto and the Backun Leblancs, the Cadenza
seems like a good deal. The Buffet RC Prestige seems ideal but probably
a little out of my price range. Does anybody have any other suggestions?
The instrument I'm playing on now is quite pitiful and falling apart,
it's a French intermediate instrument from the 1940s, so I probably
couldn't jump to an instrument that required a lot of wrestling to get a
good tone. I use Richard Hawkins mouthpieces and 4/4.5 Vandoren v12s
with my more closed mouthpiece, and a 3 1/2 with my more open one. I
also use a terrible $2 ligature that I dug out of a bin. So! Thanks for
reading all this, and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Best,
Alicia

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