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Author: StevenWayne
Date: 2017-05-12 20:03
Old Pedler clarinet. Says "The Pedler Co Elkhart Ind." in oval on the sections. E series serial number. I have an E series which I am sure is hr, but it is kind or an olive greenish brown and this one I'm asking about is still shiny black. Did Pedler make plastic clarinets?
Post Edited (2017-05-12 21:01)
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2017-05-12 20:49
I think all of Pedler's clarinets were hard rubber or metal (and maybe some wood ones). Hard rubber is black until it starts oxidizing, at which point it starts to turn brownish or olive green. You probably have a hard rubber one that's been well maintained and not yet started to turn colors.
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-12 23:21
Hard rubber and plastic don't smell the same. Hard rubber smells...well, rubbery. They certainly don't sound the same either. Plastic is hopeless.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: gkern
Date: 2017-05-13 02:23
Sorry Ruben, but Kenny Davern made an old plastic student model Conn 16 sound fantastic. More proof it's the Indian, not the arrows - my Conn 16 doesn't sound anything like his, even using a 5JB! Double High D? Forget it!
Oh, in case of any naysayers, I have several CDs of his that state "Kenny Davern plays and uses a Vandoren 5JB clarinet mouthpiece and Vandoren reeds and other products and performs on a Conn 16 plastic clarinet."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXg_px3gqqk
Gary K
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2017-05-13 03:14
If you rub one of the upper joint tenons vigourously on the palm of your hand, it will give off a tyre odour if made of hard rubber. If you don't smell anything, it's plastic.
Regarding Kenny and the Conn 16N...I once had a similar Pan American 58N. It was a superb clarinet for jazz and big band. So smooth!
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Author: Mojo
Date: 2017-05-13 16:40
Kenny is playing a crystal mouthpiece in that video. His fingers dance.
MojoMP.com
Mojo Mouthpiece Work LLC
MojoMouthpieceWork@yahoo.com
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Author: gkern
Date: 2017-05-13 18:33
I noticed that Mojo; that was recorded in 1993, my CDs are 1999 and 2003. I heard that Kenny worked with Vandoren to develop the 5JB, maybe that came after the YouTube video.
Yeah, those fingers - wow! An instructor I had would have severely bruised my hands with his cane if my fingers flew like that...
Gary K
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Author: GBK
Date: 2017-05-13 20:46
Mojo wrote:
> Kenny is playing a crystal mouthpiece in that video. His fingers dance.
I bought that mouthpiece from Kenny's family when he passed. It's a Vandoren A3 crystal, and it's a very good one.
...GBK
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-05-13 20:52
I'm with you Gary. Craftsmanship, more than plastic, wood, or rubber makes a great instrument.
Until recently, plastic clarinets were viewed by the marketplace as cheap, people didn't want to pay a lot for them, so manufacturers crafted cheaper designed ones, perpetuating the myth that it's plastic responsible for poor sound.
Witness Backun (Alpha) and Buffet (Greenline) dipping their feet in this market as quality African Blackwood vanishes.
I'll submit plastic and rubber superior to wood, when crafted well, given their dimensional stability--and I play wood.
For those who fairly claim Greenlines to be made in part of wood, note, that's wood shavings mixed with epoxy. (I mean to report, not disparage.) You'd have to think that Blackwood in all forms, whole (conventional Buffet), or dust (Greenline), maintains acoustical properties. I don't buy it.
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Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2017-05-13 21:14
A couple years ago I was chatting with a Buffet sales rep and he said a couple of things that stuck in my mind.
- Buffet believes that they can make better instruments less expensively using engineered materials
- they need to sell clarinet to people with religious beliefs about materials
- having the word grenadilla in your sales literature is worth a significant price premium
- the greenline material costs more than ABS, hard rubber or other engineered plastics that can be cast into starting shapes thhat are convenient
- that was his justification for their choice and pricing it as a premium instruments
Disclosure- I'm a materials scientist and play old seller wood clarinet because they are the designs I like. I would happily buy a plastic replica of a Centered Tone or a Series 9, especially if it was light re weight
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-15 13:25
Dear Gary, I loved this video and thank you for posting it! I agree that Kenny Davern sounds great on that instrument. But, I don't think you could play the Brahms Sonatas on it and get an adequate sound. I find that plastic clarinets don't produce a round enough sound for Classical music. That's why Ridenour-who knows what he's doing (!)-doesn't use it. It would be a lot less hassle for him than using ebonite.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Mojo
Date: 2017-05-15 16:42
I saw Kenny D several times live in the early 70's at a local NJ library concert series. The first time he was only playing sop sax. Later he was with the newly formed Soprano Summit. Bob Wilbur had just gotten him to play clarinet again. I was in HS. I did not know until years later what I was witnessing.
MojoMP.com
Mojo Mouthpiece Work LLC
MojoMouthpieceWork@yahoo.com
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-05-15 18:13
Ruben: I've often wondered why Ridenour didn't make clarinets out of plastic and suspect poster shmuelyosef's sagely assessment of the marketplace may have much to do with it.
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