Author: Max S-D
Date: 2022-11-01 21:02
I have Concepts for bass and soprano clarinets and, while both were decent out of the box for me, I ended up having both modified to varying degrees.
Bob Bernardo did his thing to my soprano Concept, refacing and doing some work to the baffle I believe. That took a bit of the back pressure out of it while retaining a nice resistance to work with. I think the tone got a bit more focused but kept most of the goodness that it originally came with. Plays great with a V12 #3. I don't know if Bob is still doing that set of modifications, but a few years ago he was charging quite a reasonable price and I felt it was money well spent.
I found the bass clarinet Concept to be decent, but ultimately didn't stack up to the B50, despite my initial impressions to the contrary. I think it was easier to get a pretty sound, but had less flexibility to vary the tone across a wide range from darker to brighter, which the B50 is marvelous at. I ended up doing some pretty wild experimentation with open mouthpieces that led to my having Mike Manning open the Concept up to 2.54mm and use the excess material at the tip to form a rollover baffle similar to a Pomarico Jazz**. It was fantastic, but pushing the design that far left it a bit odd on intonation. Manageable, but odd! It had a lot of bark, color and texture in the tone, but was still fundamentally very "clarinet-y" in my hands. Nowhere near as much of a beast as it looked like it would be. When I first played it at Mike's shop, his response was: "OK, I did NOT expect it to sound like that!"
I live in the US but ordered my bass Concept from Thomann music. Even with the shipping costs, I saved $125. The Concept for bass clarinet is good, but not even close to worth $325, in my opinion. And now I see they are selling for $420 in the US! Down to $169 from Thomann. Pretty easy choice, IMO. If you have the stomach for a grey market mouthpiece, that is.
I later ordered another soprano Concept and it played differently enough that I liked a half strength softer reed on it. I also got that one refaced by Mike Manning, but just a clean-up, not a major reworking. It plays well, but I prefer the one that Bob Bernardo did.
I guess what I'm saying is the blank has great potential, but the finish work left something to be desired for me. I don't play either Concept as my main mouthpiece right now, but I probably could. Especially Bob's refaced one.
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
