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Bass clarinet - usefull conclusion

Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-03-04 15:38

Hello

After months of invistigating and speaking with some of the top bass clarinet players and bass clarinet makers/technitians I think I now have very usefull information on bass clarinets. I hope people are interested in reading this long and detailed post. If one of the people in charge here think this information is worth putting somewhere on the website to save it is maybe a good idea.

Ok here we go.

A few months ago I wrote a thread about the problem of the clarion register of bass clarinets. Specifically refering to instruments like the newer Buffets and Selmers which have two register holes - one for notes up to D# and one for E and up.
What I am talking about is not problem with staccato of these notes which a lot of people are having. The specific problem is when playing legato intervals from low register to clarion register - for example from La/A below the staff to Mi/E below the top line of the staff - there is a short 'pff' type sound between the notes and the transition is not as smooth as on soprano clarinet.

Playing a Buffet bass clarinet for a long time I believed all bass clarinets had this problem, since the Buffet is supposed to be one of the top bass clarinets. Until one day I tried to play a Selmer model 37. The Selmer absolutely did not have this problem. The transition was smooth without any 'pff' sound at all! I thought Buffets have the problem and Selmers didn't.
Since then I probably played over ten Buffet 1193 bass clarinets (and one 1183) and three Selmer 35s/37s. I have also played a couple of Selmer Privileges. All Buffets and Selmer Privileges (I'm not 100% sure about the Privileges) had this problem I am describing. The 37s and 35s didn't!

I thought both the keywork and sound of the Buffets was MUCH better compared with the Selmer 37s/35s, so I thought the problem is worth it. When I tried the Privilege and it had the same problem I was surprised. I was sure the problem was the neck angle since that's the only difference I noticed.
I asked people on this and other forums and got mixed answers. Some claimed all bass clarinets have that problem to some degree, while others said they never noticed this problem. I am pretty sure those people haven't tried all the models of bass clarinets since the difference is obvious.

The first who helped was Morrie Backun. He was very nice and tried to help but being almost 20 hours of flight apart from me it was hard to really understand or describe the problem. He asked what mouthpiece I used and when I told him and he agreed that it is a very good one he suggested something might be wrong with the instrument and if I understood correctly from him most bass clarinets need some work to get to their full potential when just arriving from the factory. I asked him about neck angles and he told me about some modification possiblities which might help.
I went to a repairman (the one the philharmic clarinetists go to) and he said there is no problem.

I continued my research by contacting Jean Marc Volta. He is an excellent bass clarinet player (the best classical bass clarinetist I've heard) and is the consultant for Buffet on low clarinets (alto, basset horn, bass). I strongly suggest reading about him here: http://www.buffet-crampon.com/artists.asp?artist=193

Volta's reply was the most helpfull thing on this subject I've heard and was surprised no one could tell me this before. By the way, thank you to all that helped me with translation. Here is what Jean Marc Volta wrote me.

He told me he understand exactly what problem I am talking about, he knows all about it and it is exactly the same for him. He also said he knows the older Selmers (models prior to the Privilege) very well and they indeed don't have this problem (you'll soon see why).

To deal with the problem he said he learned to manage by adapting his mouthpiece and reeds. He said reeds are particularly important and have to be in the correct strength. Reeds too hard and the sound will be saturated and too soft and there will be delay in the attack of the notes. Also the speed and amount of air for playing these intervals have to be very precise.

A solution to the problem is to open the register tube hole a little to 3mm or slightly more. In one case (Harry Sparnaay's bass clarinet) they changed the original register tube to a bigger one and made the hole 4.5mm.

About the Selmers he said they in fact didn't have this problem because they used very large register tubes but from his experience the sound was much too aggressive and the intonation was impossible (and trust me if there is someone who can play in tune it is Jean Marc Volta).
Jean Marc Volta continues to play with the original small tube, because he says the sound is much better this way - much more focused and compact - and also the intonation is much better.

About the angle of the neck Volta says it actually doesn't help with these intervals, and that they have done a lot of research and experiments at Buffet. He does say the sound in general will change a lot with a different angle neck.
I think that the more modern angled neck does have a good effect on the tone, both because I have tried many bass clarinets and found the ones with the more angled neck (Buffets and Selmer Privileges) better sounding than the Selmer 35/37s with regular neck, and because both Buffet (in recent years) and Selmer (just recently) - two leading makers of bass clarinets - have changed to the more angled neck.

I also contacted Hary Sparnaay, which I also heard play live and he is an excellent bass clarinet player!
Here is a quote of what he told me about the bigger register tube hole: "It's better for contemporary music, especially when you play solo pieces, going very fast from the low to the middle register. With the smaller hole it's mostly impossible."

I hope very much that this information is helpfull to anyone as much as it was to me!

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