The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Speculator Sam
Date: 2018-04-01 05:23
Bass_clarinet_articles%26fingering_chart.html
Came across the article "golden age of the bass clarinet". I'm curious, would y'all want a bass clarinet with gold parts? Not whether or not it's practical, but like a "dream instrument" sorta thing. Thanks for reeding (reed pun)
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2018-04-01 18:26
A golden keyed bass clarinet with a cocobolo body, cocobolo bell and curved cocobolo neck would be pretty neat. I imagine Backun will probably make something like this in the future...
-Jdbassplayer
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Author: Speculator Sam
Date: 2018-04-02 07:16
Backun just might, they seem to have perfected the art of the Bb clarinet. From what I can hear though, their cocobolo bells they sell seem to actually dampen the already rich sound of bass clarinets and make it too "rounded" a tone. It's lovely for Bb clarinet since it can be too bright at times, but with bass instrument having too round a timbre will make the instrument barely audible in orchestral settings. Perhaps that's just my preference though.
I think I'd love a Grenedilla or nicer composite bass clarinet that includes gold plated and/or brass parts after about three decades of practice and I'd actually benefit from it. Otherwise, that kind of money'd best be spend on, oh I don't know, a house or a car if needed.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2018-04-02 18:03
I had a student many years ago that plays in a third tier orchestra that was taking occasional lessons with me. One day he showed up with his neck gold plated. I told him it was pretty but couldn't notice a difference in his tone which we were working on to make fuller. I thought the mouthpiece made much more difference. Of course only hearing him now and then, it was difficult to make a comparison. Some years later I changed mouthpieces and wanted my high register to be a bit warmer so I thought about why some flute players have gold plated, or gold, flutes so I asked my repairman about it. Keep in mind gold was much cheaper in the late 90s so I had my neck and bell double 22K gold plated. First they strip it and coat it with silver so the gold will adher to it. He sent it to the same place that did it with flutes in Texas some place. Back then, with shipping, insurance, plating and fees it was about $800, probably 1/4 or less what it would cost today. Now it may be my imagination but I thought it made a slight difference, hard to tell until I tried it with another students neck like mine to compare. But in any case, i received more compliments on how it looked than ever before on the way I played. So I guess it was worth it. :-)
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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