 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: vljenewein
Date: 2012-08-15 03:08
I bought it new and wondered if it is allowed to post my impression of it here?
Vernon
Jenewein Duduks Manufacturing & Research
www.duduk.us American made Duduks
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Author: Eric V
Date: 2012-08-17 04:10
Never heard of it Vernon, but tell us what you think of it?
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Author: vljenewein
Date: 2012-08-18 18:44
Well, I like it... I like it a lot. Bought it for about 71.00 new on the end of an eBay auction. I'm sure if you all want, a simple search of E.F. Durand in eBay will show it up.(similar). Anyway it arrived well packed in a box with lots of peanuts. Came with a 14 day money back guarantee that if I did not like it I could return it for a refund. So I figure, won't hurt to look.
Even though I only paid $70.15 and shipping I feel it is worth 4 times that amount. Here's why:
The lower and upper joints as well as the bell are made of hard rubber. I would imagine that it was made in China but the polish of the bore and the brushed satin finish give it a look, along with the Nickel/Silver keys gave it a look of quality. I used lots of chap-stick (cork grease) and the fit is tight. A little difficult to get the bell on, but in that I mean it definitely is snug.
I took it over to a friends house that has been playing saxophone and clarinet for over 50 years and he played it. There was a very slight issue with the C# but with his tweak, of basically making the key so when pressed it raised the pad a little further away, made it all go away. Upper register worked great and the tuning was about near as good as it gets according to a Korg Chromatic Tuner. Mostly it was right in the green all the notes. When Roy played it and I accompanied on a wooden Boosey & Hawke (London) clarinet, I had to slightly raise my barrel about 1/16" to be in perfect pitch with the E.F. Durand. When Roy got done his saying was " Amazing! There is a really nice clarinet to play". I had to agree.
The mouthpiece is nothing to write home about and I use a Vandoren B45 instead. Plays with that mouthpiece beautifully. Easy to blow and gives excellent dark tones because of the hard rubber.
Came with 2 barrels: One 63mm and one 65 mm barrel.
17 keys and 6 rings and common Boehm fingering, pretty much a standard fare.
Adjustable thumb rest with padding. I only wish it had just a bit more padding though.
On the negative side was the case. nice sturdy affair, but only enough room inside for the instrument. There was no slots or area for storage of bore swab, great, or extra reed. I was storing those kind of things in the area of the bell when put into the case, but, have since moved this new clarinet to an older case that has room in it and nice padding... swapped for the time being. The case padding has a form fitting set up and does not have the normal soft compression you find on other cases, so just putting in stuff inside the case would make it not close right. Very nice form fitting areas for the instrument, but no provisions for any extra stuff, other than inside the bell.
In examining the tone holes it appears that they are drilled and then a plastic piece is glued on top of the hole. Alignment (top to bottom) is spot on,but there was evidence of the post off to the right enough you could see a crescent area of the hard rubber that was at the bottom of the tone hole. I used a Dremmel with a diamond sanding rod and slowly cleaned up the hard rubber to match the tone hole. Even just a small amount of restriction in a tone hole will cause the resulting key or sound to be a bit lower than normal. Too big and it's a higher pitch. (Hole adjustments are used a LOT in Armenian Duduk productions) Once the tone holes were cleaned up, and there were only 3 I did, the resulting test with the Korg Chromatic Tuner showed that the resulting tone (key) was even closer to the center green mark and one absolutely in the center.
Now for that tight bell, I used 600 grit X 1" wide cloth backed sanding cloth and lightly went around inside the bell where it connects to the lower joint, and then followed by polishing red emery cloth. When I was done the bell fit snugly on the end of the lower joint but with a lot less work and will still give a great tight fit, but not at the expense of having to grip the joint so hard to put it on.
Pads, and keys are great, and the tone is very nice. I like this quite a bit.
Use different mouthpiece, which most people seem to do anyway, and a different case if you plan to pack along a lot of extras. You could leave one barrel behind and use that space for extra reeds in their own individual cases along with cork grease and a cotton bore swab laid across the whole of the instruments inside could also be used.
Who makes it? Not a clue and really I don't worry about it. All I know is that for the money it is an excellent player.
Vernon
Jenewein Duduks Manufacturing & Research
www.duduk.us American made Duduks
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