 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jim lande
Date: 2002-05-29 03:01
I think Dee said that all Pan American clarinets were student instruments. I replied that they had a model that looked almost exactly like the circa 1930 pro Conn metal clarinet. I just bought a Pan American Moderne on eBay and indeed, most of the keys look interchangable with my pro Conn. IMHO it is one of the prettiest metal clarinet designs. There are some differences. It has a screw on bell, a slightly different adjustible barrel and a larger bore. Hardly noticable, I figured.
I spent the weekend repadding and recorking the tenons. This one is absolutely tight. Out of the last dozen metal clarinets I have restored, including a few student models, it is the worst. What a dog.
t I have two 'ordinary' looking Conn Pan American metal clarinets. I will have to repad one of them. However, I now accept that ALL PAN AMERICANS WERE STUDENT MODELS.
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Author: Mark P.
Date: 2002-05-29 04:03
Jim,
Did you try various mouthpieces on that Pan Am Moderne? I have a Pedlar metal student model that sounds awful with my Blayman or David Hite but sounds good with the DIck Stabile Custom mpc that came with it. The Stabile sounda awful on my Selmer and Buffet wooden clarinets. I think I tried it with a Golden Tone mpc and that worked for some reason too.
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-05-29 04:58
Hi, Jim
I've found that my metal horns seem a bit more sensitive to mouthpiece-to-horn matches than plastic or wood instruments. May be my imagination but that's been my experience the past two or three years. Have you tried Mark P's suggestion yet? My metal horns seem to love Golden Tone 3s :]
I remember (some of) Dee's observations about Pan Americans and respect her opinions. I think she overhauled one, or something like that, and came to that conclusion. Maybe she'll respond to your post.
By 'what a dog' do you mean it's just 'hard to blow', even after a complete overhaul? I mean, it sounds like the instrument is a lemon to begin with. What's your finding about its mechanics? How's the intonation?
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Author: Willie
Date: 2002-05-29 05:33
I agree with Mark about trying as many different mouthpieces as posible on a metal horn. Try even some types you would never concider on your wood horn. My old Elkhart came alive with an old 2RV from the bottom of my goodie box. My Holton seems to speak well with an old white plastic Rene Dumont and just so-so with the 2RV.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-05-29 16:32
Well, maybe not all Pan Ams [mainly student-quality] are poor, glad to hear of a better metal, will look for one. Working on a couple of the beautiful laminates did soften my criticism of their playability! Re: mp matching, I have tried a number of mps on my 1932 Selmer Full Boehm [it has a "strange" barrel extension] and found a NEMC, faced to an [old?]WW G8, of slightly larger inside diameter, to be the best in my menagerie! Don
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Author: jim lande
Date: 2002-06-18 04:00
I spent a good chunk of the weekend recorking 24 mouthpieces, to add to the six vintage ones that I have previously saved as being somewhat worthwhile. Interestingly, I found that the thickness of cork required was not much correlated to the bore size of the mpc. The Hite Premier, which I normally use to test instruments in progress, turns out to have a relatively large bore.
I started my evaluation with a CG Conn pro model and went through the whole pile. My favorite of the bunch was the one with the narrowest bore. The second favorite was the Hite and there were about 10 others that I thought were decent. I don't think that there was any pattern by bore size. Of course, someone with a different mouth, reed and ligature might like a completely different selection.
I then went through the pile with the Moderne. With some, I was convinced that the horn must have awful leaks since whole blocks of notes wouldn't sound. However, I could get the whole scale including altissimo up to high G with a couple. This was a relief. I was beginning to seriously doubt my ability to repad a clarinet.
It played OK with six mouthpieces. Four of these were ones I liked with the pro Conn and two were ones that did not. None of these was among the 10 with largest bores. Beyond that, there was no pattern. I will have to spend some time with the 'finalists' the choose the one I like the best, but I don't think any of them elevate this horn above student quality.
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Author: Klarnetisto
Date: 2012-10-08 01:05
I'm baffled at your experience with the Pan Am Moderne, as I just had mine restored and I think it's excellent in every way.
I have a friend who collects and restores saxophones and metal clarinets in France. He tells me that the Moderne was a clone of the Conn 524 -- professional metal clarinet especially suited to jazz playing with its brilliant tone -- to the point of having the same bore, undercut tone holes, etc. The only difference was a less fancy cosmetic finish.
Now, mine came with an old white plastic Goldentone mouthpiece with is pretty undistinguished; results playing with that were pretty disappointing. But then I tried my Moderne with a Vandoren 5JB and the result were quite dramatic. The clarinet turned out to be astonishingly in tune with itself, has a superb throat Bb, and has very even response throughout the range. The tone is quite bright, yet beautiful. It responds equally well to classical or folk/jazz style playing.
My guess is that you need to try your Moderne again with a top-quality mouthpiece.
Klarnetisto
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