Author: Franklin Liao
Date: 2010-06-25 00:03
Dear eofung, David and GLHopkins:
Leblanc manufactures at Elkhart, while Morrie in Burnaby supplies the barrels and bells for all of his Backun line. Based on my understanding, Morrie does the setup personally for the Symphonie and Legacy top-end professional instruments. The Bliss and the Cadenza are mostly Elkhart made and QCd.
From my own experiences, it is pretty evident that Morrie designed the entire line given their general acoustic traits, but the works done in setup by Backun seems to attribute the most significant difference between the top end and the lower end offerings (smoother keywork mechanics, evenness in resistance and whatnot), with the nicer finishings, platings and keys being secondary in importance.
When I spoke to John Weir two days ago about their instruments, I've gotten the impression that Weir still sources from perhaps Orsi and does the keywork and setup in Canada, instead of building the entire instrument from ground up. I hope additional light can be shed on this for it is clear that Weir and Orsi don't co-brand anymore. From my limited knowledge, only Stephen Fox makes his entire instrument from scratch in Canada.
Although... I have gotten words and did ask Morrie about him making one-off customized clarinets for clients. I know not the specifics on this however. To be frank, I am not even sure if his license agreement would allow him to use the bore and keywork designs made for Symphonie/Legacy for customized instruments.
If Morrie must make a complete departure from the Symphonie for the custom instruments, it would be rather resource and capital intensive, despite him having the equipments to fashion such horns. Logistical factors would point to using the Symphonie joints and re-usable keyworks being made en masse as a logical starting point for a customized horn.
(I was dreaming of a Hamilton 14k Über-Bliss in the key of C you see)
Post Edited (2010-06-25 00:16)
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
