The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-12-21 10:15
A friend who is moving overseas just gave me 2 very old clarinets - albert system (I think?) and barely playable, one with horrendous cracks in it. One got my attention - it is marked Allan & Co. Melbourne CLASS A. Could this be Allans Music? Did they ever make clarinets?!
The other is marked P. Coupture & Co. PARIS. and has a symbol like a little sun above it. It is missing a few keys and has some huge cracks. Anyone know anything about these?
The Allans one is just playable, and may be worth a repad to actually play on, even though it is very out of tune. These clarinets, with different fingerings and key styles really interest me!
Any information/opinions welcome.
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Author: Alyra
Date: 2003-12-21 11:38
Well - my old piano scales book my mum had said Allans and Co Melbourne - so perhaps they did. They could have perhaps though imported them from china or something and put theirbrand on them:P
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-12-21 11:40
Just found something - it has "Made in France" on it. So probably made in France and branded here in Melbourne. Nothing new there.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-12-22 09:05
Just a stencil. Allan's and Co were one of Australia's biggest music emporiums for many years. The are still big in the sheet music industry holding many copyrights, including Allan's, J. Albert etc.. There are plenty of instruments going around here with the Allan's stencils. I have a BBb tuba in my workshop at the moment that is an Allan's stencil and made by Boosey and Hawkes. There are a few mouthpieces for brass and woodwind that have the stencil also. The brass mouthpieces were locally made somewhere in Victoria. Allan's still have a retail store in Pitt St Sydney.
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-12-22 09:57
Yeah there's one here in Melbourne too. They charge far too much for reeds and have very poor customer service reps. who don't seem to know much about their products.
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Author: Alyra
Date: 2003-12-22 10:12
And Adelaide.
I'd say they are still one of Australia's biggest music chains.
Unfortuantely in Adelaide there isn't much choice either :(
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-12-22 11:24
I don't like big music chains, there's something very anti-music about them...
I'm also against Musicorp - those two words put together make an oxymoron.
When looking for new instruments, I tried their extensive range of Buffets. When I left saying that none of them appealed to me, the guy said I just didn't know how to find a good clarinet.
On another occasion, they opened a new store and I went in to have a look - he was telling a mother who'd gone in with her daughter that she should but a silver head joint for her daughter's flute (she looked about 9 maybe 10) as it would "make her play better and she would be able to practise less". Obviously a better salesman than he is a musician...
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