The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Tom Ridenour Clarinets

Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-11-23 04:40

The great Lazarus, he of the method books, played his entire career on an ebonite horn. At the other end of the scale, one of the sweetest sounding horns that I ever played was a $25.00 Vito (so help me God) that someone had apparently had serviced by a guy or gal who knew their business. Not bad for a flea market purchase!

The main reason that I would choose a wooden horn over a plastic/synthetic one is that the wooden horns tend to have far more attention paid to the design and finish issues. Things like undercut tone holes are (to put it mildly) uncommon on the synthetic instruments. You can have it done, of course, but even after that the action is always stiffer and harder to adjust.

While I've not played the soprano versions of the Ridenour horn, I have very carefully examined one of the basses. Based purely on mechanical issues alone, I'd not touch it with the proverbial ten foot pole. Very poor fit and finish, keys that were not properly seating (with testing with cellophane; I didn't have my bass mouthpiece and reeds along at the time during Hurricane Rita), and a lot of minor issues that led me to believe that whoever was shipping the horn was not serious about what they were doing. Given a choice between the Bundy I played for a while in high school and the low C Ridenour horn that was "top quality" according to the Brook Mays woman who was "showing it" to me, I'd use the Ridenour to reconnect the sewer line to my house, and keep the Bundy.

But, it may have been a bad sample...

leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

Tom Ridenour Clarinets new

Neal Raskin

2006-11-22 02:05