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Re: Yamaha CSG

Author: klarinetkid
Date: 2010-04-30 18:52

I've been playing a set of CSG clarinets in my orchestra (after about 13 years of playing Buffets) and for me, they've really been fantastic horns. My two cents:

1. I think the key plating talk is interesting. When my repairman Tim Clark used to stock Buffet clarinets (a lot of them) I would try a lot of clarinets, silver and nickel plated. The silver plated keys always seemed a bit deader in sound to me as opposed to the nickel plated keys, but this could be my imagination. I always went with silver plated keys simply because I would wear away nickel plating really quickly and the silver always seemed to hold up a little better. I personally preferred the sound of the Hamilton plated horns, although I don't know if I was listening with my ears or with my eyes...

2. I've tried a wide variety of barrels from Tomoji Hirakata. I tend to prefer the opposite of most CSG players (including Paul). These clarinets do play lower in pitch, but I actually use 57.5 mm barrels on both my Bb and A (1 mm longer than the standard barrel). This puts me within reach of A440 (I play with an oboe player who is pretty insistent on this...) and I haven't looked back. I do notice that my throat Bb dips a bit, but not nearly as much as what you've described. It might actually be worth it to try some different mouthpieces on the CSG to see if you notice any improvement. My last Bb, an R13 Vintage actually had a sharp throat Bb- sometimes you just can't win...

3. Although these clarinets come with an excellent setup out of the box, I still went through my normal routine of having it set up by my repairman (cork pads in the upper joint, tuning, balancing key action, etc...). A good repairman can work on the voicing and pitch of the throat tones with you and hopefully get it right for you (or at least within striking distance).

4. Flexibility. One of my favorite things about the CSG is that it has a tremendous amount of hold without sacrificing response. That is, I can make quite a racket at the beginning of the solo in the overture to Der Freischutz without having to work overly hard to keep the sound from becoming shrill or spread but I can also play pppp with a great amount of ease (given a good reed of course). Personally, I've found I have great flexibility with dynamics, but not as much flexibility in color as with my old R13s. On the other hand, I don't think my last R13 (while an excellent instrument) had nearly the amount of hold or ease of intonation, blend and projection that my CSG has. You can't get something for nothing, but in listening to recordings of both chamber music and orchestral performances, I very much prefer my sound on the CSG- I only wish I'd had them 15 years ago!

Just my impressions, YMMV, as they say!

Good luck!

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Yamaha CSG new

Rik

2010-04-26 16:11