 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2006-02-14 05:04
Hello, have a look at the bass Dennis Smylie is holding here:
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060127/ENT01/601270306/1083/ENT
What is it?
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-02-14 05:59
I saw him play live a few months ago and he explained a little about the bass. This bass is a Buffet from the 1920s. I am not sure who it was originally owned by, but if I'm not mistaken it was owned by Mazzeo at some point. The bass originally was a low Eb bass, but Mazzeo gave it to the powell flute factory to build an extension. The long bell is what they built, and if I remember correct it goes down to written Bb, one whole tone lower than a low C bass.
Also worth mentioning is that Dennis Smylie has one of the most beautiful sounds on bass I've heard and even more important he is a very nice person.
Post Edited (2006-02-14 06:00)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-02-14 14:48
If you look at the body, it's a more or less ordinary low-Eb bass, with the big metal bell extension added. It's obviously an older model, with an open hole plus ring for the left index finger.
Dennis also owns an old Buffet bass in C, which I would give anything to get hold of or find the twin for.
He's the ultimate low clarinet player. He makes a gorgeous sound on contrabass, which you can hear him play on the Stoltzman recordings with the Opperman Clarinet Choir. Listen to him particularly on the Barber Adagio.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2006-02-14 14:56
Gotta get me one of them! :-D
I wonder if the extended-bell concept makes the long linkages for those low notes any easier to build?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-02-14 15:05
Should be more direct I reckon - like a Leblanc paperclip contra or contrabasoon type linkages for the low notes.
Talking of strange bass clarinets - has anyone seen, owned or played a Heckel bass clarinet? Or better still, has anyone got any pictures of one? I heard they made them in varnished maple, like Heckelphones and bassoons. I wonder if the maple was 'flamed' as well (well, done with ink as on their bassoons)?
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-02-14 17:17
Ken, that looks exactly like a reversed photo of a Buffet bass clarinet. It even has the BC on the bell which means Buffet Crampon.
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Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2006-02-14 17:33
I think image001 shows the Heckel bass with the straight wooden bell.
Post Edited (2006-02-14 17:35)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-02-14 18:39
I like the left-handed Buffet Prestige!
As I imagined, the Heckel one has the wide metal socket bands, but I didn't expect the straight wooden bell.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-02-14 19:14
It looks like an experiment I tried a few years ago, in which I made a removable low-C extension for my own bass clarinet by building an elongated bell section (a la low-A bari sax) rather than an elongated lower joint -- in other words, the instrument 'turned the corner' at the bottom at the same spot as a regular low-Eb bass and the three additional notes were on an upward-going length of tube, culminating in a bell. This is a much more compact way to build a low-C bass clarinet, analogous to Leblanc's "paperclip" folded contras. As it turned out, my experimental extension sounded quite stuffy (for various reasons) so I abandoned it for the moment, but no doubt Dennis has a much better-crafted instrument!
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-02-14 20:50
You would expect a clarinet extension to be wood, but Powell is a flute maker and I guess works most comfortably in silver.
Anything made by Powell is good pretty much by definition.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-02-14 21:33
Ken,
There's absolutely no practical reason to make such an extension out of wood. Far easier, and equally effective, to make it out of metal tube, or plastic or hard rubber pipe. Wood is pretty, though.............
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2006-02-15 13:50
This has been going around "New Bass Clarinet" Yahoo! group. The consensus is that its a Mazzeo-modified Buffet (low Eb) instrument with a range now down to low Bb (as low a a EEb Contra Alto).
The extension was appearently built by the Powell Flute Factory.
I don't know if this will work for non-members, but here's the beginning of the thread in that forum:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/NewBassClarinetGroup/message/800
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