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Re: Selmer Series 9 Basses

Author: JEG ★2017
Date: 2019-12-18 02:04

Max S-D

Your post made me curious - I was in NYSSMA All-State in 1966 and 1967 and I remember picking up a couple of Selmer instrument brochures. I was able to find one a few minutes ago that's dated from 1966. It lists Model 30, 32 and 33 bass clarinets.

Model 30 is what might be considered a standard bass clarinet. Basically the only thing special about it is the low E-flat key.

Model 32, in addition to what the Model 30 has, has the left hand E-flat/A-flat lever and articulated G-Sharp.

Model 33 includes everything the Model 32 has plus range to low C, and is designated as "Special order only."

The brochure lists the Model 30, 32 and 33 as Selmer Series 9 and the photograph of the Model 32 shows the Series 9 logo along with Selmer Paris. My 1971 instrument does not have the Series 9 logo; only the Selmer Paris logo.

I agree with you that the Model 33s were manufactured most likely into the 1980s. I remember trying a Model 37 sometime in the mid 80s and being impressed with the ergonomics, as I mentioned previously, plus the new low note keys, but I liked the sound of my instrument better.

A little more history - I picked up my bass in May of 1971. A friend had special-ordered a Model 33 to include a left-hand low E-flat (not standard at the time) plus articulated long B/C-Sharp keys. Felix Viscuglia of the Boston Symphony, who we both studied with at one time or another, had those extra keys. The music store in Boston where we ordered the instruments notified him that his bass had arrived so we jumped in my car and drove to the dealer, only to discover that the instrument that arrived was a standard bass, serial W49xx. Since he didn't want it the dealer offered it to me and I bought it for $565 plus tax. About three months later I was notified that my bass had come in, serial W19xx. I told them that I had already bought the other bass clarinet. The following year my roommate at the time wound up buying that instrument. It had a different register mechanism but otherwise was not much different than mine.

My first friend's special-order bass finally arrived quite a bit later. After all that I was never as impressed with it as I was with mine, even though his had the special keys that he insisted you couldn't play 'Daphnis' without.

As I mentioned before, I always felt that my Model 33 had the best sound of any I had played. Given the circumstances I described above, it seems to have been a matter of dumb luck.

Incidentally, the brochure I have does not make any mention of Mazzeo bass clarinets. If you think about it, the Selmer Paris basses already had double automatic register keys, so I don't know if a Mazzeo mechanism would have added much, and I don't know if Mazzeo himself had anything like it on his bass clarinet. If I find the other brochure I'll check that.

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