 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Fred R
Date: 2001-03-10 16:53
Hello All;
A while ago I put a post on whether or not to buy an old wood bass clarinet (Emil Lyon France) and got much advice. Well I bought it and took it to a local music shop for repairs to make it playable. Here in NJ everyone seems to send repairs out, so there is no direct communication with the technician. For $100.00 it came back with a few pads replaced and broken key fixed but still unplayable. Both the music shop and the technicians’ notes seemed to indicate a lack of interest in such an old instrument, so I decided to play around with it myself and try to get it playable enough for me to gauge my ability and interest. I oiled it inside out, replaced some other pads I thought were leaking (I just used Valntino pads I can’t find any source for “bass clarinet” pads), added pieces of cork her and there, and did a bit of bending on a number of keys. I do have the entire range “speaking” but I do have some problems. I am wondering if they are mechanical in nature or caused by my inexperience with this instrument. I am using the mouthpiece that came with which I believe is Selmer C and just a Ricco 3 reed for now. I apologize for such a long post. I did try searching the board but I get 1600 matches for bass clarinet and 0 when I try limiting the search.
1: Intonation is rather sharp. On the closed column notes E-F#, B-C# as much as 40 cents. It gets more in tune as you go up the column. 20 cents seems to be the norm.
2: The middle B and C are very anemic and stuffy.
3: Clarion E to A seem rather unstable and can be lost easily, especially when hitting them from an interval greater than a third. The exception being hitting the from the lower registers’ harmonic. Additional pressure on the keys seems to help but causes fatigue.
4: I can’t hit anything over the altissimo Eb even playing up chromatically and with great care.
5: There is no floor peg (or clamp for one) on this instrument, I use a double hook strap and when I play thumb C and F I tend to push the mouthpiece away from me loosing the note. I am not confident I am providing the proper embouchure for the instrument I seem to notice a lot of movement. Can someone please describe the proper embouchure and where to tongue on the reed? Trying to get a staccato seems difficult.
Thanks for any and all advice.
Sincerely;
Fred
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2001-03-10 17:29
Fred it sounds like you are in a leaking row boat. i would try to get all of the holes fixed before i spent any time trying to play the horn. i just started to play the bass and the horn is in good condition so i know the problems are all mine.
There are a couple of good repair persons on this board. maybe one of them would like to take on the job.
have fun
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Author: Miles
Date: 2001-03-10 17:57
Hello Fred,
One of the best bass clarinet repairers in the business is Tim Clark. He is located in Ohio.
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Author: Matt
Date: 2001-03-12 04:06
well, I dont know if this will solve anything, but I think if you got a better mouthpeice and better reed, itll help. Try a vandoren mouthpeice, and there are new Grand Concert reeds that are great. I dont like the regular clarinet Grand Concerts, but the bass ones are good.
Good luck
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-03-12 12:01
If it is old there is also a chance that it has not bveen made to A=440. It could be designed to be up to 1/2 semitone sharper or flatter. It was not that long ago that world pitch was standardized, and many manufacturers dragged their heels in retooling (VERY expensive) to the new standardized pitch.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-03-12 15:41
Fred -
Clarion E to A are problematic on all basses. There should really be 3 register vents. If yours has only 1, there's not much than can be done to improve the situation. If it has a double register mechanism (switching when you raise and lower your right ring finger), then regulating it will probably help. This is tricky and is really a job for a repair shop. It's clear that you need something better than Valentino pads. If you think the instrument is worth keeping, you'll have to grit your teeth and pay for professional repairs.
Any competent shop can solder a floor peg holder to the bell. It's not too expensive and can make playing a lot easier.
For the intonation, it would be worthwhile to get a tuning ring for the center joint and pull out the bell a bit.
Inexpensive bass clarinets can be a pain. Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Robert Small
Date: 2001-03-12 18:46
I heard that there is a bass made in Germany that has three register keys. I would suspect that this horn costs a few Deutschmarks.
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Author: C. Hogue
Date: 2001-03-13 21:00
My one big lesson in owning a bass clarinet: find someone who knows how to fix BASS clarinets, not just clarinets or woodwinds in general. Otherwise, leaks never seem to get fixed right, wasting your repair money.
Dave Spiegelthal, a frequent poster on this bulletin board, does excellent work on basses. He's in the greater D.C. area.
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