The Clarinet BBoard

Selmer HS** and Legere European

Author: fskelley  Date:   2017-02-27 07:26 A week or 2 ago I went Google searching for references to mouthpieces that are helpful in high altissimo. (My years long quest for stable and reliable C7 is well documented in this forum.) I found a couple of comments about the Selmer HS** (same as the D?)- that it excels way up high. Here's one- http://www.musicaseria.com/clarinet/mouthpieces/mouthpieces.html So I thought- why not? For $20 I grabbed an HS** pictured while the listing said HS*. I wondered which I would get, figured either way I'd learn something. I think the seller noticed he mixed it up- he sent both! Boy were they green, smelly, and nasty tasting- but I know how to fix all that in short order. I've been playing a long time on 5RV Lyre, had rejected almost everything else I'd tried through the years. But now I'm on a mission. Give me my precious C7 and I'll deal with whatever else I must. What follows is based on these 2 HS samples- which may well have been monkeyed with, or just deteriorated on their own, since leaving the factory 40-50(?) years ago. I've since ordered a pricier and much newer looking HS**, when it arrives it'll either be the same or different, and as Mythbusters says any result is a result. First- the HS* is way closer in feel to my 5RV Lyre. But it's nothing special up high. The HS** lives up to its billing. High notes are no issue, up through C7. Wow that is so nice. All these years of adjusting reeds and swab in the bell and hee haw exercises, just to tempt me with short seasons of C7- so much rubbish. With the HS**, just finger and blow C7, it's there. Every time. Any reed. But man oh man- the HS** is resistant. I have quite a collection of old reeds, and I tried a good sampling of them. And I adjusted the heck out of a few to see what I could do. 1 or 2 were almost there, but still had me blowing my eyes out of my sockets from low E through C6. (But they all played C7, LOL.) The difficult play of so many reeds in this setup surprises me because I do have one real winner. And I don't understand why it is so much better than all the others--- the Legere European 2.5 ("LE") I just started with a couple weeks ago. I was happy how it played on the 5RV Lyre, but it wouldn't do C7 at all- which is why I went looking. On the HS** the LE is almost "normal"- resistant but tolerable. I can live with it. Another LE is on its way. I am wondering if I need to pursue a Centered Tone to match the HS**. That's what it was made for, right? Not my modern design Ridenour Arioso = 576BC. Isn't that like new wine and old wineskins? I'm hitting a lot of topics here- and like everything with clarinet it's all mixed together, so tough to know what factors matter. But anyway, I'm having a very good clarinet week- perhaps that will stretch into months and beyond. Stan in Orlando EWI 4000S with modifications Post Edited (2017-02-27 07:49)

Topics	Author	Date
Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	fskelley	2017-02-27 07:26
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	Klose	2017-02-27 11:04
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	Tony F	2017-02-27 11:24
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	Caroline Smale	2017-02-27 23:59
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	fskelley	2017-02-28 05:51
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	Wes	2017-02-28 23:13
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	WhitePlainsDave	2017-03-01 07:45
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	fskelley	2017-03-04 04:41
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	RLarm	2017-03-14 21:30
Re: Selmer HS** and Legere European  new	fskelley	2017-03-10 06:01

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