 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John25
Date: 2006-10-16 17:17
We recently had a thread about the Heckelclarina. This persuaded me to look for my 1931 Heckel catalogue. At last I found it today. It is surely the most fascinating and comprehensive catalogue ever issued. It lists 104 models of instrument, with diagrams of each (except for the saxophones, which merit only one picture.
These are the instruments offerd in 1931:
Clarinets: high Ab, G, small Eb, D, C, Bb and A (14 models of the last two, including Boehm and full Boehm.There is also a "half-Boehm" - a Albert (simple) system instrument with Boehm keys for each little finger)
Alto clarinet in F, basset-horn (2 models), bass clarinet (4 models) and contrabass clarinet in Bb
Flutes: 6 models + 3 piccolos
Oboes: 11 models, 3 oboes d'amore and 5 cors anglais
Heckelphone (3 models) + piccolo heckelphone in F
Heckelphone-clarinet - a heckelphone with a clarinet mouthpiece
Heckelclarina - a soprano saxophone with oboe fingering - + piccolo heckelclarina in Eb
Saxophones from high Eb down to baritone (including C melody)
Bassoons: 25 models, including 4 with Boehm fingering on the butt (right-hand) joint
Contrabassoons: 8 models
All these were offered in 7 pitches, varying from A=435 to A=460.85.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-10-16 17:33
The only photos of a Heckel-made clarinet (Oehler system) and flute (a conical bore 'Reform' flute) I've seen are in the Anthony Baines book - I didn't know they made saxes!
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-10-17 14:22
John -
If you have the time, inclination and hardware, I'd like to have a scan of the entire catalog, or at least the single-reed parts.
Ken Shaw
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-10-23 14:10
I'm sure many of us would like to see this. Could it be hosted on this site? Mark might need to get Heckel's permission, but I doubt they'd refuse.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-10-23 14:46
No problem hosting it here as long as Heckel doesn't mind, and as david said, I don't think we'll have any problem getting them to agree. John25, if you want to proceed, let me know.
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Author: Marek
Date: 2006-10-25 10:03
Attachment: heckel8.jpg (58k)
Attachment: heckel5.jpg (61k)
Attachment: heckel3.jpg (66k)
Hi, I found your post, that you had a Heckel catalog from 1931.
I recently bought a Heckel piccolo flute, with busted body that I'm planing to restore. Could you email me piccolo flute pages copy from this catalog? If there should be a charge please let me know, I can pay via Paypal. Greetings from Poland, Marek mpmusic@pro.onet.pl
Post Edited (2006-10-25 11:12)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-10-25 10:57
Hi Marek, sorry to see your piccolo is in a bad way! I hope the restoration is a success.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Marek
Date: 2006-10-25 11:08
I found a guy who says he could do it but he wants a lot of money. Any idea how much piccolo like this could be worth, in decent shape of course?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-10-25 11:36
I think it will only have historical or sentimental value as it's a very basic piccolo - had it been a Boehm system it would be more desireable.
But judging by the poor condition of your piccolo, the repair work needed doing is going to be more than the piccolo is worth, to be honest.
It's probably much easier to make a whole new body joint (just the wooden part - any original metal fittings can be taken from the original and fitted onto this) than to repair this one.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Marek
Date: 2006-10-25 15:10
That's what I thought too, but he discovered Heckel name stamped on the body as well as the serial number 5247 which, providing the same serial number secwence as bassoons would be 1914-15 and wants to preserve its originality. So, there are two ways historical/sentimental and practical. I am waiting for an answer from Heckel too - how many piccolos did they make etc.
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Author: John25
Date: 2006-10-25 18:16
Sorry, guys, I had a major computer crash just after posting my original. As a result, I have been off-line for 6 days. I thought I had attached a picture of the Heckelclarina to my original, but when I saw it yesterday (for the first time), the picture wasn't there! I'll try again. As you may understand, the catalogue is one of my prize possessions. It has 40 pages. I'll try to get the clarinet pictures (actually they are diagrams not photographs) to you. There is also a description of each model in German, English & French.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-10-25 18:50
What is it with old German instruments and those orange-coloured rollers?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2006-10-25 21:04
Hi John, would love to see the diagrams of the bass and contrabass clarinets. all the best with your computer.
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Author: Marek
Date: 2006-10-26 16:07
I have a few older German system clarinets with orange rollers. Who knows, maybe it was a cool color back then. Anyway, I got an answer from Heckel. They have two piccolo like mine in their possesion. I should be getting some pictures from them next week. I thought it was very nice of them to bother writing me an email.
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Author: John25
Date: 2006-10-26 19:17
Attachment: Heckelclarina.jpg (166k)
I am hoping that the two attachments will be OK this time. I have scanned the Heckelclarina and Heckelphone-clarinet (on one page) and the 14 models of clarinet (page 2). Model 10 is a Clinton system; models 11b-g are Oehler; model 14 is Half-Boehm, model 16 is Boehm and model 17 Full Boehm.
Although the75-year copyright is up this year, I'm not sure about scanning all the pages. The first four of the catalogue are German text, giving the history of the firm.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-10-26 20:28
The alto sax is a pretty standard one for it's time, but the Heckelclarinas are basically soprano and sopranino saxes with German style (and oboe system) keywork, and Heckelphone-clarinet is a deeper pitched version of these but with a wooden body.
Interesting maybes (or has-beens), though it's easy to understand why saxes dominated this market.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-10-26 23:50
John -
Great stuff! Given the sax keywork, the lack of keys for the throat tones and the conical shape, the instruments obviously overblew at the octave and had a saxophone sound. It probably sounded like a tarogato or an octavin.
I wonder how many they made. Heckel produced many instruments as experiments. An article on the Heckelphone in IDRS magazine said that only two of the tenor and one of the alto Heckelphone were made, even though all sizes appeared in the catalog.
By the way, page 2, with the clarinets, didn't make it, though. Please try again.
As long as the copyright has lapsed, I'd really like to have the entire catalog, including the German text, the oboes, bassoons, etc.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Marek
Date: 2006-10-27 07:37
John -
How about scanning piccolo flute page so I can rescue my piccolo?
Thank you in advance,
Marek mpmusic@pro.onet.pl
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Author: John25
Date: 2006-10-27 20:54
Apologies about the clarinet page. There were two attachments on, I thought. Anyway, I am trying again with the clarinets. You can see why I hesitate about doing 40 pages!
I had a letter from Heckel yesterday, and they said that the Heckelclarina was for German clarinet-players who didn't like Boehm fingering. Only 4 or 5 were made!
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Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2006-10-27 21:07
quick, somebody give john a hand with those pages : )
can't wait to see more diagrams.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-10-28 00:27
No can do unless John gets permission from Heckel ... a page or two is just fine, a whole catalog not so fine.
If John gets permission then I'll put the whole catalog online.
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Author: John25
Date: 2006-10-28 17:53
Attachment: Heckelclarinets.jpg (447k)
Thanks guys for your interest and patience. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I thought I was doing the same as I dd for the Heckelclarina diagrams, which came out fine.
I double-click on "Add attachments" at the bottom of the Reply screen, then click on my attachment (the Heckel clarinets is a 446Kb JPG) in "My Documents". It then appears in the other "Add attachments"; I check that it is the correct file and then click on "post". Am I missing a click somewhere?
[ There is a limit on how large a picture can be to include here on the BBoard. For large pictures I have better places for the images, and as I've mentioned on this thread previously, an image or two from a copyrighted catalog is fine, but any more than that requires permission from the copyright holder. Hopefully John can get that permission and we can put the catalog in a better location and all together. mark C. ]
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-10-28 19:30
Good stuff John - funny they don't picture the speaker keys in the diagrams - the Oehler system pictured in Anthony Baines' book has the usual wrap around speaker key, but I wonder if they offered both types?
And the half German, half full Boehm is a funny beast.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: John25
Date: 2006-10-28 20:05
I discovered that I wasn't waiting long enough for the file to be posted, before I went on to other things.
Mark, I have done two pages, which you said in your postings you would allow. I am quite willing to ask permission from Heckel to reproduce any more. The question is - exactly what do we wish to show? The 40-page book has 13 pages of German, describing the history of the firm and workshop, plus how to look after your bassoon. There are fifteen diagrams of instruments (2 flute, 3 clarinet, 2 oboe, 3 odd & ends (e.g. Heckel- clarina), 4 bassoon and 1 contrabassoon, plus a few black & white pictures of selected models. Then there are the descriptions of each model in German, English & French.
My copy is brown printing on cream paper and is rather battered and worn (see the "Heckelclarinets"). The scan of the Heckelclarina was from a new black & white sheet sent to me by Heckel last week - this is much better. I think I should ask for new diagrams from Heckel. I can copy the English translation of model details.
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