Author: m1964
Date: 2023-06-12 09:17
Julian ibiza wrote:
> I would imagine that good clarinets are designed by top
> technicians with adequate playing abilities, rather than top
> clarinetist with limited technical understanding.
>
> It's basically a machine after all .
Hi Julian,
I don't agree with that- a new model may be "designed" by in-house engineers/acousticians, but the final tweaks are done by the maker's artists, who will play the prototype and give their feedback to the maker.
And those final tweaks make the new model different from other similarly priced models.
For example, RC Prestige A clarinet now comes with C#/G# tone hole chimney. Not only the chimney improves the sound of the C#/G#, but also minimizes water collection in the tone hole.
I was lucky to be able to play R13 Prestige, Festival and RC Prestige A clarinets- both the R13 P. and the Festival had C# somewhat dull-sounding and collected moisture easily in that tone hole. RC Prestige, with the chimney, has C# sounding in line with C and D, and I rarely get water in that tone hole.
An owner of a clarinet shop in Paris confirmed to me that the chimney was introduced to solve both above problems.
How did Buffet came to this tweak of the original model? Probably by receiving feedback from their artists.
In Selmer's world, there are Privilege and Muse models, looking very similar (and feeling very similar too under my fingers).
They do, however sound different-Muse has more open, easy-flowing sound.
How did Selmer come to the need to introduce the Muse? Probably by receiving feedback from their artists.
Now, going back to the original question: why the maker's artists do not use the equipment they endorse?
Well, some probably endorse only because they are being paid, others may like the piece of equipment initially but later find something else they like more.
I know personally a clarinetist who is a Selmer artist, and he does play Selmers and likes the sound of Selmer clarinets.
So, the answer to the original question can be different depending on who is the individual endorsing the equipment.
Also, what is the ratio of those artists who do play the equipment they endorse vs. those who don't? We tend to notice that "this player advertised [Buffet/Selmer/Yamaha] but was seen on YouTube playing a Patricola clarinet". But how often do we see that?
Another consideration could be the music being played: that same Selmer artist told me that for one particular contemporary piece of music, that requires playing double-notes, Selmer just would not play those in tune, but a Yamaha did, so if he needed to perform that piece, he would use Yamaha.
So, it seems to me that there is no straight-forward answer to Ruben's question.
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