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Eb alto advice needed

Author: Vrat
Date: 2003-12-22 13:19

I bought a cheep plastic Eb alto clarinet on eBay (Vito). It plays and sounds well in chalumeau register and it goes to altissimo easily. But it is stuffy and squeaky in clarion register.
Any advice?

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Re: Eb alto advice needed

Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2003-12-22 13:31

Vrat,
Welcome to the world of harmony clarinets with single registers vents therefore having stuffy and out-ot-tune clarion registers! The solution, I'm afraid, is to buy a professional-level instrument having a double automatic register vent. Every so often a single-register-vent instrument happens (by luck more than design) to play well, or can be made to do so by tonehole undercutting, messing with register vent size/length/placement, or a combination of 'fixes', but most of the time you just have to live with it. The sad acoustical truth is that Bb soprano clarinets should have a register vent entirely independent of the throat Bb vent, and any clarinet larger than a soprano needs the same PLUS at least one more register vent (and the really big clarinets, from the EEb contra-alto on down, really need THREE register vents). But price and complexity preclude.....

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Re: Eb alto advice needed

Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-12-22 22:36

From Daughter's computer in Alabama, well said/explained, Dave S, you covered the basics very well! My Selmer Paris Alto responds and tunes well with [ "in spite of only"] single reg keying, With a compatible mp! and practice. For this ?, I suggest searching , with looking for Mazzeo's and Stubbins' work re: the Bb. MC & HNY Don

Thanx, Mark, Don

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Re: Eb alto advice needed

Author: Gary Van Cott
Date: 2003-12-24 20:28

You might try some other mouthpieces. They can make a big difference.

My current model Buffet alto clarinet would be better if it had a double register key (the previous model did). However the only bad notes are the middle of the staff B and C. The extra resonance keys that they added took care of the other problems in the middle (clarion) register.

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