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Re: Improved Albert or Oehler

Author: Chris P
Date: 2020-02-20 20:22

Doubled pad cups are a pain when installing pads if they're both solidly mounted together on the same cup are or bridged by a fingerplate soldered to both of them. Piccolos often have the same thing on the thumb key and the LH3 fingerplate on ones without the split E mechanism. I prefer to use cork pads as they're more stable, but it still takes some doing to get both pads sharing the same arm to seat at the same rate. Some makers are kind in not having both LH3 pad cups connected directly with each other (the fingerplate for LH3 soldered to just the one pad cup and not the other), so either one of the pad cups can be adjusted to get things balanced right. If using cork pads, you can make one pad thicker with less shellac and seat that one first, then the other a bit thinner with a bit more shellac and install that one after and some shellac will ooze once it finds its level and seats at the same rate as the first (only the first pad will probably move with the heat). Or better still is to use liquid shellac and allow it to harden whilst the key is gently held closed however long that takes.

Austrians use German style clarinets with far fewer keys and an extra ring key than Oehler systems (around 20 to 22 keys as opposed to 24 to 27 or 28 keys and with 6 ring keys for all the main action tonehole chimneys). They lack the top joint F/C key for LH2, the RH2 fingerplate and possibly either the LH Ab/Eb or Bb/F lever, but they may still have the low E/F correction mechanism fitted depending on the maker. Austrians use a much smaller tip opening mouthpiece compared to Germans (and consequently stronger reeds). They also favour a metal ligature over string.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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