 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2003-06-02 17:32
A friend recently gave me a 1964 Noblet Bb clarinet. She played it for a couple of years in school and then gave up the clarinet. It's been sitting in a closet for close to 40 years. A number of guys on the Sax Forum speak highly of older Noblet clarinets...in particular, as a good jazz clarinet. One of them described this windfall as "a great score". ha ha ha I sent the clarinet to my repair tech for an overhaul and look forward to working with it.
I'm curious if anyone on this Forum plays a 60's Noblet. If so, please share your impressions of it
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Author: MGarrison
Date: 2003-06-02 19:10
Hi Roger
I play an older Noblet but I don't know how exactly how old it is. It is almost impossible to get any help from LeBlanc in determining the age of these clarinets.
Perhaps if you put up your serial we might be able to glean the age of ours?
I am very happy with the sound and feel of my Noblet clarinet. I believe it is a good intermediate instrument, probably good enough for me for a while yet. I am using a Selmer B* mpc and Vandoren Optimum ligature.
Marina
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Author: joevacc
Date: 2003-06-03 01:51
I have one also. Found it at a yard sale for $25.00. I don't think mine is quite as old as yours but I think it is from the early seventies. It plays just fine and sounds great. I have a pro, 1947 Leblanc that has better key work and sounds better to me but the Noblet holds it own.
The only thing I did to mine was repad it and I bought a Guy Chadash barrel that was a great improvment to the intonation and sound. I have Chadash barrels on both my Leblancs... they work great for me.
Great horn I think you'll be happy with it.
Good luck with it and let us know what you think when you get it back.
-=[Joe Vacc]=-
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2003-06-03 12:59
The serial number is 562xx. My friend had been the only owner of this clarinet. According to her recollection she purchased it new at a local music shop sometime in 1964.
I'll use a Ralph Morgan RM28 mouthpiece and a silver Francois Louis ligature on it. This is what I use on my Patricola. I'll ask my repair tech what he recommends regarding barrels for the Noblet. I've heard good things about Chadash barrels.
I'll let you know how the Noblet works for me. I'm really looking forward to playing it
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-06-03 13:16
Roger - You might want to have your repairer measure the bore sizes of your upper joint, it may be a 15.0 mm [big] bore horn since it is of that LeBlanc time period [Pete Fountains etc]. If so, the barrel and mouthpiece bores may need be "matched" for tuning and response purposes, otherwise "it sounds good". Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Clarence
Date: 2003-06-03 18:29
I have a 1964 noblet. The stock barrel works fine and the bore size matches modern mouthpieces. Problably the most under rated clarinet out there. Having said that, I don't like the key work on the 50's Bb Noblets. I also have an Eb Noblet.
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Author: skye
Date: 2003-06-03 22:43
I have an Eb noblet also, don't know how old it is but it's pretty old! For all the criticism they take, I really like it, I have played a much newer Eb and it didn't have the same tone quality of my cheap third (?) hand noblet!!
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2003-06-09 02:58
Hey Everyone, I got my Noblet back from the repair tech. Steve Fowler did the overhaul for me. He lives south of Baltimore. He did an excellent job on it and I definitely like this clarinet. Steve checked with LeBlanc and learned the serial number is from 1966 instead of 1964 as my friend had thought. I'm really looking forward to spending time with this clarinet!
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