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Uebel Basset Horn Tuning Issues/Mouthpieces...

Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-06-20 19:48

Please comment if you have had similar findings

I've got an Uebel basset horn in to do some work on (Made In GDR, so that's an idea of when it was made - straight wooden bell with cranked floorspike), and the owner is having tuning problems with it - with the original plastic Uebel mouthpiece it plays over a quarter tone flat over the entire range.

The original mouthpiece bore is 16.6mm at it's narrowest and 16.9mm at it's widest (ie. it's oval) and the crook bore is 17mm as expected (the bore of the instrument has narrowed to 16.8mm).

I tried it with my Yamaha German Bb mouthpiece (around 15.3mm bore) and this brought it up to pitch evenly across the range, as does my Vandoren M15. The crook socket is 22.5mm which is ideal for any Bb mouthpiece.

The Uebel mouthpiece length is 88mm in total (tenon is 17mm) and the Yamaha one is 91.4mm (tenon is 18mm).

So I recommended the player to either use her own Peter Eaton Bb mouthpiece, or get a German Bb mouthpiece going from what a difference these mouthpieces could make to the tuning.

And then I compared the Uebel with my old Selmer basset horn. Although the Uebel has the larger bore, it feels way too resistant in comparison to my Selmer - and my Selmer hasn't been worked on much since I've had it and I've only changed two pads on mine, so mine isn't exactly in top notch form (though one day it will be when I go to town on it).

Is this the nature of the beast that is a Uebel basset horn? Are they more resistant than French (or other) basset horns? It has leather pads in it and isn't airtight - neither is my Selmer by any means, but my Selmer plays much better generally (the Uebel owner said my Selmer feels almost like her bass clarinet in it's tone, projection and playability).

Will altering (widening the diameter or lengthening the tube) the speaker bush have a profound effect on it's playability in the upper register? I will have to sort it all out first before doing anything to the speaker bush because as it stands, there are a lot of more pressing issues to deal with before I do that, and I want it all fully airtight first so I can rule out leaks.

Another thing I noticed was the lack of flat springs - I took the side Eb/Bb key off and a bent needle spring (cut from piano wire by the looks of things) was left in the spring slot - instead of tapping out screw holes in the side keys, they've just drilled a blind hole and shoved a needle spring bent into an L shape with the free end curved as a flat spring would normally be. It's doing the job a flat spring would do, but they have really cut corners here.

If it was in for the full works I'd probably tap all the flat spring screw holes out and fit flat springs as would be the norm. Now is that normal for Uebel to have done back then? Considering they have gone through the trouble of fitting locking screws in the pillars (to keep the point screws in place), why would they have skimped on properly fitted flat springs?

Incidentally, between the three of us (as she brought another basset horn player with her), we had no problems using each other's mouthpieces to try out each other's bassets to see what worked and what was better.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

Post Edited (2007-06-20 19:55)

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