Klarinet Archive - Posting 000097.txt from 2008/09

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] J. Wallis & Son clarinet in C
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:08:30 -0400

Do any of you play a J. Wallis & Son clarinet in C? Thanks to information
about the company that Mark Charette posted in the bulletin board keepers
(2005-11-12), I date this clarinet between 1884-1891. It came with a
non-original mouthpiece that's been Mickey Moused to fit, probably with some
sacrifice of intonation. Can anyone give me advice about the correct
dimensions for a replacement mouthpiece?

Since there seems to be little specific information about Joseph Wallis
clarinets online, here are some details. There's no serial number. It's a
Victorian replica of an early 19th century clarinet, made of boxwood with
bare brass tenon bands, 13 bare brass keys and no rings. The man who sold
me the clarinet had been playing it in a non-marching band with a Civil War
reenactment group (period costumes, period weapons, etc.) and had had the
instrument re-padded with white kid (a good job). The clarinet is
beautifully made. Previous owners have preserved it in clean, playable
condition. The seller played it for me. It sounds good.

There are two slight cracks in the bell and there is a slight upper socket
crack in the top of the lower section. If that latter crack runs, it could
lengthen and intersect the F/B tone hole. However, all three cracks seem
stable and are so tight that I can hardly feel them. They're little more
than dark lines on the wood (through to the bore).

The maker's mark on the bell and the upper section is a lyre, with the
following below the lyre:
J. WALLIS & SON
135 EUSTON ROAD
LONDON

The logo on the lower section is briefer:
J. WALLIS & SON
LONDON
There is no logo on the barrel. The letter C appears below the logo on the
bell.

The measurements are as follows (not including the tenons, which are each
5/8" long):

Total length without mouthpiece: 19-3/4"

Barrel: 1-3/4" long, 1/2" to 3/4" (0.539 to 0.784" with an electronic
caliper) internal diameter

Upper section: 6-1/8" long, with 3/4" (0.784" with an electronic caliper)
internal diameter at both tenons

Lower section: 9" long, with 3/4" (0.784" with an electronic caliper)
internal diameter at lower tenon (connection to bell)

Bell: 3-7/8" long

I took all diameter measurements inside the tenons. My caliper will not
reach past the sockets, which are 3/4" long, but the bore appears to be
completely smooth between sections. That means the upper and lower sections
are cylinders and the taper is smooth, not stepped, between barrel and upper
section and between lower section and bell.

The clarinet came with an old but not original hard rubber mouthpiece meant
for a clarinet in A or Bb, a reed (either "Isovibrani" or "Isovibran 1,"
France, unusual, with a slight losenge-shaped cutout on the flat side of the
base of the reed), a ligature (modern, no-name, 2-screw nickel) and cap (no
name, old, good silver plate). The mouthpiece marking is so faint I may be
misreading it: in an oval, "Penzel Mueller" above, "Preufer" in the center
and "New York" below.

Including the 1/2" long tenon, the total length of the mouthpiece is just
over 3-1/4" (3.304" or 83.87mm) with an electronic caliper). Someone has
removed the cork and not replaced it, and has ground down the length and the
outside of the thick end of the tenon (the normal bare space at the end of
the tenon below the cork) to 21.37mm / 0.84" external diameter to make the
Bb/A mouthpiece fit into the barrel of this clarinet in C. With the tenon
stripped bare, it's a tight fit into the barrel. There's no room to apply
cork. The internal diameter at the mouthpiece tenon is 0.573" / 14.47mm
and probably about as good a fit for the bore as I'm likely to find. This
mouthpiece also has a slight chip at one corner of the beak, though it plays
well. My un-modified Bb-A mouthpieces are typically about 22mm or 0.86" in
external diameter and will not fit into the tenon socket of this barrel. (Eb
mouthpieces are much too loose to work.)

I don't like that uncorked mouthpiece tenon. The rocking, though slight,
could do damage. Also, the clarinet and mouthpiece could separate by
accident. I could lathe down the tenon of this already-compromised
mouthpiece to make room for string or cork to protect the tenon and socket,
but I wonder whether this Bb/A mouthpiece might be too long for the
instrument anyway. By today's standards, it's playing slightly flat but
reasonably in tune, judgng from the way the vendor, who was accustomed to
the instrument, sounded on it. However, at this point, I can't trust my
assessment of the intonation. (I've only owned this clarinet for two days;
I've never played a clarinet in C before; I'm not used to it yet and I sound
more horrible than usual. Poor Shadow Cat!) The instrument catalogues I
have here don't list separate mouthpieces for clarinets in C. What do you
folks use on old C-pitched clarinets? Should I stick with this modified
Penzel Mueller mouthpiece or...?

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/Lelia_Loban

------------------------------------------------------------------