Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2019-04-07 19:08
Clarineteer wrote:
> Contact Larry Frank of Frank Woodwinds. He is a specialist when
> it comes to sax necks.
Done that! He says flatly that they don't exist and suggested contacting Steven Fox. Here's my real problem, which, honestly, isn't all that important:
When I was much younger I wanted the mouthpiece angle to be more like a soprano clarinet - more vertical than the original angle of the neck of my Leblanc, which was pretty much straight out. So I asked my repair guy, Mike Hammer, to reshape the neck, which he did very successfully. The moputhpiece sits at about a 45 degree angle to the clarinet's body.
As I've gotten older, the reach to the bottom RH keys, especially F/C and E/B, has become more and more uncomfortable. My fingers don't stretch at age 72 as easily as they did when I was 30 or 40.
I recently played on an old Selmer bass (probably nearly as old as my Leblanc) and found that because its almost straight neck angle actually lowers the mouthpiece, it let me put the instrument a little higher on the floor peg. The inch or so difference that I could raise the clarinet actually (to my surprise) made those two low RH keys easier for me to get to. If I raise mine to a height that's comfortable for my right hand, the tip of the mouthpiece is at about the tip of my nose or a little higher.
I should have known better than to change the existing neck 30 years ago. I should have kept the original intact and had a new one made. I don't want to have Mike try to undo the change - I don't know for sure if it will help and I don't want to risk destroying the neck in the attempt.
It may be, if a Vito neck has the same (or nearly the same) dimensions as the neck I have, that the window for the vent could be cut out of it, which should be much less involved and expensive than having a whole new neck configured.
Thanks, everyone.
Karl
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