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RE: upper register sounds pinched

Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-02-20 21:21

On artist quality metal and plastic clarinets --

I tried a silver Haynes several years ago at Ponte's Music Store. It was a fine instrument, but I didn't get it because it was based on a Selmer model (I prefer Buffet) and because the left little finger keys were too short for me. I don't think it was ever filled with water -- you just blew into a tube that went between the inner and outer walls to warm it up.

Ponte also had a pair of H. Bettony silver clarinets, based on a Buffet model. They were great, but too expensive for me at the time.

Silver Selmers come up on eBay about once every 3 or 4 months and sell for $600-1000. Bettony SilvaBets come up every 3 weeks or so and go for $300 or a bit higher.

I just got an H. Bettony silver Eb clarinet, which was not in playble condition but is restorable. My teacher Alexander Williams told me he played one in the New York Philharmonic.

The best BBb contra in the world began life as a plastic Vito. The best Eb contra began as a plastic Beuscher. Kalmen Opperman put in hundreds of hours transforming them. Neither played worth a damn as made. He told me that the Beuscher was literally unplayable. I played both of them about a month ago, and they were amazing. I have read that Charles Bay has done the same with plastic bass clarinets and contras.

I would leap at the chance to get a top quality clarinet in silver or plastic. Flutes and oboes are already there. Heckel bassoons have had the wing joint and the descending part of the boot joint lined with Bakelite plastic for 100 years. Clark Fobes prefers to make plastic-lined barrels. It's only a matter of time.

Ken Shaw

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