Klarinet Archive - Posting 000100.txt from 2008/09

From: cealleach@-----.net
Subj: Re: [kl] J. Wallis & Son clarinet in C
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:14:35 -0400

A good source of information about the maker would be the New Langwill Index edited by William Waterhouse.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Lelia Loban <lelialoban@-----.net>
>Sent: Sep 23, 2008 4:08 PM
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Subject: [kl] J. Wallis & Son clarinet in C
>
>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
>
>
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