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The Ethnic Clarinet The C4 standard

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Re: Need help on Albert System

Author: ron b
Date: 2004-09-06 07:24

I've played Albert horns forever, Joe. I've lost count of how many Boehms I've repadded and Albert re-pads number in the dozens. Albert top joints are fairly straightforward as there are no complicated combinations to fuss with. The bottom combos are not too difficult either, to me at least - now that I've done lots of them. I like to seat the long B/E first. Then seat the Right pinky C, followed by the "Patent C#". Adjust the B/E (patent) operated lever so it and the (Patent)C# pad close simultaneously. You can bend the lever slightly but I prefer to rely on cork thickness to do the job. Then adjust the C pad so it and the C# pad close simultaneously. The Ab/Eb is independent of the rest, just regulate the clearance to about the same as the other large pads. Do the same to the C# - it's not connected to anything else. If there's an Eb/G# lever adjust it so there's just a tiny amount of motion before it raises the Eb pad.

Another approach that works well is to seat the C and C# pads. Adjust the C# to close them together. Then seat and adjust the long key (E/Bb) to simultaneously close the C#. From there the procedure for C# and Eb is the same as above.

For many years I used a Steel Ebonite mouthpiece and still use it with a couple of my instruments. With the rest I use a Geo. Bundy #3 mouthpiece and it works quite well. In other words, plain ol' mouthpieces work just fine on all my Albert horns. I'm not a collector, just a packrat...

I apologize for being this late responding to your post, I don't visit here as often as I'd like to. I hope this is not too late to be of some use to you.

- r [cool]