 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Franklin Liao
Date: 2009-08-23 01:15
On today, the maestro opened up his workshop, partnered up with Tom Lee and Conn-Selmar and the topic supposedly is the Bliss clarinets. Before anything else, a big thanks to Morrie and his workshop, conn-selmar and Tom Lee for even running this gathering.
No.1 thing I walked away with is a tip from Morrie:
Shine a flashlight up from the Bliss's bell and use the lightto rapidly check for leakage that way.
Now I should start with a summary of what happened.
The event is geared towards the music educators really. I noted in attendance someone from St. Georges private school, a pretty well known school in Vancouver. There are others, but I've not the chance to talk to most of the people in attendance.
Morrie walked everyone through his workshop while Jeremy Backun, the trumpet player that makes clarinets helps out and have us see a Bliss barrel carved out in front of our eyes.
After that, it was a banquet on the host's expense, and it was sweet. Vancouver decided to show its sunny side today and it is glorious.
Before long, the small group of people tipped off about this... 'meet' started to tickle the keywork and play with the toys laid out on the table. The supposed star, the all Granadilla Bliss ended up being just one of the boys to try.
It's embarrassing for me as I know not the name of almost everyone present. (What do you expect! I am an IT person)
The whole thing went from 11AM-3PM before it winded down.
I will then go on and reflect a few things.
Morrie began with that demonstration of the Bliss and talked about Julian and Conn-Selmar. I was a bit concerned how conn-Selmar will recoup the cost of making the Bliss, since completely new tooling were required to manufacture this thing, as the CAD->CAM approach isn't really how clarinets are typically made.
The conn-Selmar representative who's with us the whole time commented about the market and where the instrument is positioned. Most of the pros and the music department heads ask him about the performance of the conn-Selmar horns, leaving me, the IT guy to ask about how the firm would try to wrestle market share from the Yamaha YCL-250s and Buffet B12.
When Morrie and Jeremy took us into the fabs, I really was salivating. The precision involved with the work and the emphasis on putting as little stress on the wood as possible, along with the 10 year age of wood stock left me feeling like being unkind to my wallet. The speed which the cutter can fabricate custom parts make me think that Wurlitzer would not outproduce even the most man-hour intensive commissions to Backun workshop.
Morrie and Jeremy noted that the mechanical tolerance of their manufacturing techniques meant that there's really no optimal placement of the barrel and bell, since the variance is within a few micron (?) I personally think that if the barrel, the body and the bell are all made under the same facility, then there should be no concern about putting the logo at that magical point to get the optimal sound...
Jeremy's CAD machine's a Dell XPS that frankly I'd wish to see the gut of and tweak the living hell out of... there's a 24" Apple Cinema Display with another 24 incher used to show the rendering, which made me a happy camper.
We then had a run in with Mr. Tak Maeda. Backun expanding into brass section is something that I think is awesome. I can't help but feel sorry for all those people that have to fly over to Vancouver in order to have a same-day tuneup done on their horns though. (I didn't dare to tell a soul there that I can walk up to the workshop in 1/2 hour)
I was not particularly happy to hear about the job prospect for the professional musicians and also gig. Being in a discussion between Morrie and a gentleman, I distinctly feel that the kind of effort required to land jobs are becoming herculean and it'd be sad if technicality becomes the end all be all to land a seat over the limited chairs.
O yes, about the instruments.
A part of me fell in love with the all granadilla Bliss clarinet, and I was somehow regretting having pull the trigger on the composite with wooden barrel instead. However, I found that getting a granadilla bell would almost make me just as happy, so I'd be waiting for that...
the R-13, B12, Jupiter, several Bliss, a Yamaha, Cadenza (?) and a few other clarinets were on the table over the entrance for everyone to try. There's even Backun bells and barrels for people to mix and match. I found it funny that people came prepared, with their own mouthpiece and reed all ready to go. I found it hilarious how that the condition of all of these clarinets are superior to that of the Tom Lee store demonstration units, and it made me wonder about how much abuse the demonstrators must have had experienced ...
Maybe the joke's on me though, since I carried my clarinet on my back instead of just having my mouthpiece and the reeds on me.
Those are some of the thoughts I've had over this event. Again, it's terribly embarrassing for me to not know/recall the name of those that were there. My playing already improve on the spot, by the way, from having been told that I've been putting on the inverted Cadenza ligature in reverse for the last 1.5 month I've had the clarinet...
Post Edited (2009-08-23 01:49)
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Author: William
Date: 2009-08-23 14:49
When I was a child, it was always lots of fun to go to the five & dime and pick out new toys to take home and play with. I'm older now, and have learned to play more carefully with the toys I already have--especially since I cannot afford the new ones.
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