Author: Mitch K.
Date: 2003-03-31 22:51
From my somewhat limited experience on bass clarinet, I must "second" the comments of "lowclarinetman." I've performed on Yamaha, Buffet, and Selmer bass clarinets, and have found the Selmer that I tried to be far superior to the other. Here are some facts concerning my opinion: while both the Yamaha and the Buffet were instruments owned by the respective universities that I went to, they were both well maintained by very competent repair techs and less than 3 years old. The Selmer I used was -- at the time -- 25 years old, and professionals clarinetist's horn, and had not been touched by a repair tech in 2 years!
The resonance on the Selmer--which was lacking on the Yamaha and uneven on the Buffet--was so full and effort-less. The intonation .... well, it was better than my R13's.
What I have noticed with the Buffet bass clarinet is that when there is a small misadjustment somewhere on the horn, it wreaks havoc on the more than you would think. Consider: I was in grad school being "forced" to play clarinet for a concert with the Alexander String Quartet. One of the pad heights had adjusted itself, and the repair tech was unavailable. I had to perform the concert with a well-intuned chalumeau a horrifically out-of-tune clarion (with a painful B & C), and an altissimo that made dogs cry. After the concert the tech adjust something, and the horn played with much better intonation. Now I don't know if the same or similar would be true for the Yamaha and Selmer because, thankfully, I never had such a situation with them.
I sold my Selmer bass a few years ago when I though I was going to give up the clarinet and focus on conducting. Now I'm looking to buy a new one, and I'm going to start with Selmer.
Cheers,
Mitch King
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