 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: tes
Date: 2012-07-15 19:13
i just found a 3 piece wooden clarinet for $50 at an estate sale. I played clarinet throughout grade school, high school and college and have been wanting to start again. I have been trying to find out information and have not been very successful.
The upper and lower joints are one part! there is an extra key for the L pinky. I cannot make out the stamp on the body (either starts with a C or G), but it has a serial number and says paris. There may be an original case from Rome. Mouth piece says Martin Handicraft.
It has a wonderful tone. But is harder to play than my son's school instrument.
I am planning to take it somewhere to get it cleaned and restored.
Has anyone heard of a similar clarinet or know a good resource to get more information? The clarinets with similar amounts of pieces that I have found on the web were metal.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-07-15 20:49
Bb clarinets with a single upper+lower joint are not very common but have been made in past and in fact Louis Rossi still makes his clarinets with a one piece body.
Many Eb clarinets are still made this way.
Musically it seems very sensible to make the instrument out of all the same piece of wood - however -
There are several reasons that they are not common in the larger sizes
- It is not easy to find a good defect free piece of wood in this size
- It is much harder to ream the bore when it is very long
- If the upper bore cracks one cannot replace just the top section
- It is harder to make the subtle adjustments to the bore for tuning etc
- It is more difficult to undercut the toneholes in a long bore
- It does not lend itself to mass production
etc etc
So the reasons come down mainly to the practicalities of manufacture.
What you have may turn out to be a nice, if older, instrument since even in the past single piece bodies would only have been made on the higher grade clarinets.
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Author: tes
Date: 2012-07-15 22:44
Wow, thank you. Makes sense. It does have a very nice sound.
I found more information.
it is a cousenon & cie. A post on this site in 2002 had an imprint on the bell similar to mine: "Hors Concours", "Memor Du Jury", Paris. It is very worn and hard to read
I hope once I get used to it or after it is cleaned and restored, it is easier to play. It takes more effort to play the upper register than what I am used to (son's clarinet).
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-07-16 14:05
I'm an amateur, but fwiw ... I own a 1931 Buffet in A with all the keys on one section. I like that clarinet a lot. It's got the best intonation of any clarinet I own.
There's a built-in intonation advantage with that one-section setup, because with the normal upper and lower section, it's not possible to locate the hole for the chalumeau C# / clarion G# in the best place. That place would be right on the tenon joint. Because of the compromised placement, just above the tenon joint, those notes can sound squirrely on a lot of clarinets. It's also true that the compromise can be excellent on the best-quality clarinets, but no compromise at all is even better!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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