Author: TomS
Date: 2021-02-07 23:35
Once upon a time you could buy R13 clarinets with no plating. I'd rather they just left it off. The instrument doesn't play any better (maybe even worse) with plating. I've had the same issue with nickel plating on ALL my clarinets ... it wears off quickly. Better luck with silver plating. Of course, the sulphur content of hard rubber will tarnish silver quickly ... but so what? My silver plated ligatures tarnish and I like the look.
Think of a hard rubber clarinet with no black pigment in the rubber and rose gold plated keys! That would be cool.
Yeah, I have an early production Libertas as well as my recent 576. I don't know which I like better ... they are different. They have a different feel under the fingers. The Libertas is easier blowing, has more center, more flexibility and I like how easy the altissimo speaks. If our band conductor lost his mind and asked for me to play a solo, I'd probably use the Libertas. If I just needed to hide in the clarinet section or maybe play some polite chamber music, I might use the 576. It seems that the intonation is better on my 576 than the Libertas, but just might be my setup, voicing or whatever ...
I'd be interested to see/hear if the Libertas has had some incremental changes/improvements over the years ... might be worth getting a 2nd ...
I think the acoustical model of the 576 has been around for a while ... I understand that it first made it's debut as a Vito VSP, which was a wooden clarinet.
And, I believe, the Libertas is basically the acoustical model of the Leblanc Concerto/Opus.
Tom
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The Clarinet BBoard
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