Klarinet Archive - Posting 000126.txt from 2004/12

From: "DWH" <dwh46@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] History of two old clarinets - old leblanc
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 21:56:19 -0500

> Oddly enough, I really don't have any experience with them, either. The
> Stubbins mechanism was clearly was designed to give a better throat Bb
> using the register key, which it no doubt does, but with the disadvantage
> of added mechanical complexity and, thus, unreliability. The Mazzeo
either
> allows or requires some alternate fingerings to gain its advantage, I
> believe, in addition to the cost of mechanical complexity. I believe on
> some Mazzeo models the mechanism could be switched off if desired. Now
> that I spend a day or two a week working in the shop instead of being on
> the road 5 days, maybe I will get a chance to play with one sometime!

Be sure to let me know if you have the chance and what you determine. I can
recall seeing one other variation on this theme, a Vito Stubbins model that
was also a full plateau clarinet. This one I helped our shop tech work on
because it was his first, and he required an extra pair of hands
reassembling it because of the plateau mechanism. Because it was a special
rush job for someone out-of-state, I didn't get to try it, either.

I miss working in a shop much more than the road work (primarily because
that part of the school music business has changed, at least in our rural
setting), but plan to spend some holiday vacation time in my friend's shop,
rebuilding a couple of "projects" I've had on hold or a couple of years.

Don Hatfield

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