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Re: Vintage Leblanc Symphonie Full Boehm Clarinet

Author: NOLA Ken
Date: 2019-02-23 06:50

As one who has given in to the lure of the full Boehm curiosity myself, I have discovered some cautions. Unless you just have some excess money burning a hole in your pocket, you might ask yourself why you want a full Boehm in the first place. They tend to be heavier, longer, and you will have a devil of a time finding a case unless one comes with it. And while you gain some fingerings, you lose a few as well, which can be confusing if you are also playing regular Boehm clarinets. Are you just in love with the low end of the clarinet range (as I am)? Would an extended Boehm (minus the low Eb key) serve your purpose just as well? (Many jazz musicians have used the extended Boehm, and those tend to show up more often.) Are you planning on playing in an orchestra? If you anticipate having to transpose orchestral A clarinet parts for the Bb - or play A clarinet parts that have been transposed to Bb - the full Boehm can sometimes come in handy. Otherwise that extra key and weight can sometimes just be in the way. Or are you just fascinated with all that extra key work? Despite my initial interest, I have found that my full Boehm mostly just sits while I spend my time practicing the parts for community band and orchestra on one of my standard Boehm instruments.

By way of price comparison with what you are looking at, I have a mid-60s era Selmer Series 9 full Boehm I paid $900 for in almost perfect condition about two years ago and a 60s era Leblanc Symphonie 3 full Boehm in need of some work that I recently paid $550 + shipping for recently. There is a Selmer Series 10 full Boehm up for sale online right now for $1000 reduced from the initial asking price of $1400. I'm not an expert on the Leblanc Symphonie line (I own two Symphonie 3s - the full Boehm waiting to be ovehauled and a standard Boehm Symphonie 3 that is a fantastic instrument after a full $500+ restoration). But I would say that if it is just curiosity motivating you, the price you mention may be a bit steep for that instrument. You can do better for that price if you exercise some patience. Or maybe you can talk the seller down a bit if you are pretty certain that it's a really good instrument. All of the instruments I mention above had rather higher asking prices that the sellers were willing to come down from after the instruments didn't sell at asking price. Full Boehms aren't in great demand and don't show up every day, but they show up frequently enough that you can find a good one for less than the price you cited if you are willing to wait for it and haggle price. (I would not, however, recommend the Selmer Series 9 FB unless you have largish hands and fingers. It's a beast.)

And even if it is billed as having been overhauled, unless you can actually play it before you buy it you will very likely need to figure in the cost of having at least some work done on it before it's ready for prime time. One caveat I have seen on this bulletin board is that not just every clarinet tech has experience with working on full Boehms. You might want to check around for techs in your area. I've had to ship mine off to have work done, which has it's own hazards.

Probably more information than you wanted.

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