The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Fred
Date: 2001-07-17 02:50
An earlier thread on the 1010 raised some questions and confusion (at least on my part.) Here is a response from Peter Eaton on the evolution of the B-H instruments. He was very gracious to answer my email and allow permission for its posting.
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Fred,
Briefly, the Imperial 926 was introduced by B&H just after the war as their top line model. The design was based strongly on a pre-war Selmer model but a larger bore was added, necessitating a larger bore mouthpiece. The bore dimension of the 926 was nominally .593" (15.06 mm). This design was used for all their cheaper instruments, Emperor, Regent etc.
The profession in England did not care for the new model and most continued to play their old pre-war 1010's which were of a very different design in many ways, apart from the obvious one of bore dimension (.6" or 15.24 mm). In the early 1950's B&H were obliged to re-introduced the 1010 but didn't do it particularly well and so again many players still stayed with the old 1930's instruments and this tended to continue until well into the 1960's.
It is a little while since I last looked in detail at the stamps on the post-war 1010s but I believe that they did incorporate the words Imperial, Symphony and 1010 on the stamp, perhaps rather confusingly. Players always call them simply "1010s".
I am not aware of the cases being labelled specifically for a particular model though there were very large numbers of changes to this sort of detail over the years and this could be one.
Your instrument would appear to be a 1010, unless some one has added a 1010 bell to a 926, which is probably unlikely.
I hope this helps. If you need more then let me know.
Best wishes,
Peter Eaton
Peter Eaton Clarinets and Clarinet Mouthpieces web site
www.eatonclarinets.com
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Author: graham
Date: 2001-07-17 10:03
What would be interesting is to know what the differences were between the 1950s 1010 and those before and after this decade. PE says they re-introduced the 1010, "but not particularly well". That suggests they did something different. They certainly do play differently. My 1955 1010 is a great deal better than my 1979 1010 was. It has a more complex sound, and greater resistance towards the bottom of the instrument, so the feel of it is quite different. I suspect a different bore dimension and different broaching at the bottom, but have not investigated that.
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Author: Bill Fogle
Date: 2001-07-17 17:47
Great info! NB, my c. 1975 1010 has only "Symhony." No regal adjectives involved.
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