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 Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: klook 
Date:   2011-07-16 15:39

I've got an old clarinet by Boosey and Co., which predates the Boosey & Hawkes name.

Its marked LP and has the general length of an clarinet in the key of A.

My question is, at this point in Boosey's history, was their LP A=440 or A=435?

Its a nicer hard rubber clarinet with good sturdy keys, Albert system. I'd like to overhaul it however an A-435 clarinet might be hard to play in tune even with a shorter barrel?

Any ideas would be great, thank you!

mark

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: klook 
Date:   2011-07-16 15:46

Oh, the serial number seems to date the clarinet out at pre-1910.

mark

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: Chris P 
Date:   2011-07-16 16:10

Low pitch in Britain at this time was 439Hz - in France it would've been 435Hz, so as it's a Boosey&Co. it's probably at 439Hz which is near enough 440Hz. You'd have to check it with a tuner to be on the safe side.

If it's 439Hz then it should be fine with other 440Hz clarinets (though don't use a Vandoren "13 Series" mouthpiece with it unless you like hard work) but will be flat when played along with flutes!

Short barrels won't raise the pitch uniformly on any clarinet - they'll have more effect on the pitch of the upper left hand and throat notes and not much effect on the right hand notes.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010

The opinions I express are my own.

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: klook 
Date:   2011-07-16 17:44

Alright, that's what I wanted to hear.

This clarinet is nice, one interesting thing is the G# key is mounted on the left side of the upper section, not the typical crossover setup found on most every other clarinet!

There's some corroded key rods I'm having a hard time with and some broken rusty springs, but, everything is straight and should come out just fine!

mark

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: clancy 
Date:   2011-07-16 19:45

What is the serial number?

R Wodkowski

www.ramonwodkowski.com

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: klook 
Date:   2011-07-16 20:53

Serial number is 17933

mark

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: clancy 
Date:   2011-07-16 21:15

Yes that certainly is old - my list puts it at about 1910....haven't seen many of that age floating around.

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: Mark Charette 
Date:   2011-07-16 21:46

Clancy, please include a legitimate email address in your profile. You can choose not to have it exposed publicly, but the moderators must be able to contact you.

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 Re: Boosey and Co. and Low Pitch
Author: klook 
Date:   2011-07-16 22:16

Yes, its quite ancient, and hard rubber!

I have one pesky key rod for a long LH pinky key that won't come out. Of course!

mark

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