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Re: Backun Alpha

Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2019-03-14 22:14

I had an Alpha for a while, as I was curious about them and got one used for a pretty good price. I matched it with a Ridenour Ivorolon barrel and a Grabner K14 (surprise!). Also, I found that as received the throat notes were very flat and stuffy...the thick, black Valentino pads didn't help, so I replaced them with thin leather pads and raised the key height (including bending the touch on the A key a little) to open the notes up and tune them. Similarly, the register key was poorly vented, so I replaced the pad with a beveled cork pad. I don't recall offhand, but there were a couple of other keywork and tuning tweaks that made a difference.

For the price of these clarinets, I was not surprised that some setup was required. I bought this as a candidate for outdoor gigs and jam sessions where old wood clarinets are at risk. I decided that I liked the keywork on my Vitos better (V40, 7214) and sold off the Alpha, but the Alpha had nice sound and response.

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