 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ron b
Date: 2005-11-09 18:09
Another recent post I just read reminded me of something I hadn't thought of for a while. My first instrument. It was a metal Conn that I'd played from fourth grade through junior high (in addition to an old Albert system that I enjoyed playing too). In due time, and being reasonably serious about playing, I traded the metal Conn in on a new Selmer wood clarinet toward the end of eighth grade. I still have a couple of photos of me with the metal horn but have no clue what may have become of it. I occasionally wish I'd kept it. It was a nice instrument. But... it just didn't look like the "professional" wood or plastic ones all my peers played ...(sigh)....
- r![[cool]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/cool.gif) n b -
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Author: FrankM
Date: 2005-11-09 18:19
One of the other posts was discussing good quality student instruments and mentioned the old Bundys. My first clarinet was a used Bundy purchased around 1967. I of course had to have wood when I hit high school and got serious about music. I eventually traded the horn in high school to get a Gemeinhardt flute ( because of Ian Anderson and Bruce Johnston of the old Maynard Ferguson Band I just had to have a flute ) but I wish I still had the old Bundy.
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2005-11-09 18:52
I still have the first one my parents got for me, a E and S Buffet model which hails from 1932.
Got it used from an oboist, Nick Lanutti, in South Phila. Still plays adequately....The case died, however.
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
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Author: hans
Date: 2005-11-09 19:19
I don't, but I believe my nephew is still playing it so that it's still "in the family" (I gave him my first alto sax too). My parents had bought it for me ~45 years ago. Fortunately I have been able to afford better instruments, but it was a good starter and it gave me much pleasure
Hans
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Author: DressedToKill
Date: 2005-11-09 19:50
Sure do! The old Bundy my grandmother gave me for my 10th birthday with the plumber's tape for cork on the top joint...I pull it out once a month or so and play the Mozart on it, just to restore some perspective and remind myself of what it's all about.
No matter how many beautiful, expensive horns with their East Antarctic PurpleheartVioletMonkeywood or their platinum-uranium-50K rose gold-with-an-extra lever for this-and-that-note keys I'm fortunate enough (well, if killing myself working for The Man to make the money to *buy* these toys is fortunate) to acquire, my love of the clarinet *started* with my grandmother's $75 plastic Bundy, and it sounds every bit as lovely in that most sublime piece of music as anything else.
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Author: Bill
Date: 2005-11-09 20:04
I don't have the exact one, but I have a comparable LEON TROTTE wooden instrument (older serial number, I believe).
I think next year I will Dave Speigelthal whether he might restore it.
Bill.
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Author: Danny Boy
Date: 2005-11-09 20:13
My first clarinet was something that I believe is no longer made...the Peter Eaton student model, the 600.
I looooved it, and played it with an Eaton mouthpiece.
It survived until I reached the first teacher who suggested I might make a career out of this game...he hated wide bore clarinets and insisted I trade up to something different.
Cue the new pair of R13s, and 10 year membership of the Buffet mafia.
I sold it through the UKs Clarinet and Sax society...did anyone buy one off a young lad in 1995?
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Author: javier garcia m
Date: 2005-11-09 20:16
No. My first clarinet was an Evette-buffet ABS horn. I used it 9 years. I sold it when I bought my current horn, a Buffet BC-20. I sold it to a fellow clarinetist, but later she sold it again, so I don't know where it is now.
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Author: marzi
Date: 2005-11-09 20:36
yup, my ever faithful vito from 1968, it steps up when my son and I are short a clarinet (we both have intermediate wood ones now), and its not bad quality at all.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-11-09 21:48
Yes, at least my first GOOD one, a Penzel-Mueller Full Boehm, [20/7]. I was about 15 then [1934, middle of the Great Depression]. My teacher Frank Perne' [Fr?] played it in pit groups for Silent Pictures during the 1920's. Believe it was for my hard-earned $100. Still plays quite well, have cured most of it's upper clarion flat-ness, by now. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2005-11-09 21:53
My first clarinet was given to my by my grandfather. It's a Conn 242N, apparently worth some money since it hasn't cracked. He gave it to me in the trust that I would NEVER sell it, which I won't. He passed away 6 months ago and I'm thinking about having it full restored in his honor. I've seen a resotred Conn and it was gorgeous.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-11-09 22:10
Sadly no. I'm thinking the name was Andre Ruelan. Had a ebonite bell and barrel, the rest being wood. Never cracked despite playing in all kinds of indoor and outdoor weather. I keep hoping it will turn up some day on the unmentionable website.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-11-09 23:06
My first clarinet got stolen at college (a B&H Series 2-20, #234701) - not a huge loss - the insurance payout was £550 (the price of a Noblet back in 1989) when it cost me $7.75.
But I still have my first pair of Selmer 'Centered Tone' clarinets - 19/7 system (N.6), and I've put them into retirement as I've got a pair of Series 9 full Boehms now.
I was in the market for a Leblanc LL full boehm A to match the Bb I bought recently, but then a Series 9 Bb turned up on eBay (to match the A I bought and rebuilt about 2 years before, and then languished in a drawer wrapped in paper) which I didn't want to pass up the opportunity, and I'm chuffed I didn't.
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Author: Gobboboy
Date: 2005-11-09 23:08
Chris P wrote:
> My first clarinet got stolen at college (a B&H Series 2-20,
> #234701) - not a huge loss - the insurance payout was £550
> (the price of a Noblet back in 1989) when it cost me $7.75.
>
> But I still have my first pair of Selmer 'Centered Tone'
> clarinets - 19/7 system (N.6), and I've put them into
> retirement as I've got a pair of Series 9 full Boehms now.
>
> I was in the market for a Leblanc LL full boehm A to match the
> Bb I bought recently, but then a Series 9 Bb turned up on eBay
> (to match the A I bought and rebuilt about 2 years before, and
> then languished in a drawer wrapped in paper) which I didn't
> want to pass up the opportunity, and I'm chuffed I didn't.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-11-09 23:27
The Series 9s are my main clarinets, but I do like to dabble - I even used a B&H 1010 one evening!
Steady on old fella!
I've bought an pld plastic Yamaha 24 for outdoor use, let's hope I can get the keywork conversions finished (adding a LH Ab/Eb key on the same pillars as the LH F/C lever and forked Eb/Bb mechanism on the top joint) before I need it for an outdoor concert in December.
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Author: mtague
Date: 2005-11-09 23:56
I used to play a school instrument (probably 2 different ones, one for grade, then one for high school). When I was about 15 my mom bought me a plastic bundy, which I do still have, and later I bought myself a signet 100, which I play today. I'll probably keep both of them when I save up enough to buy a "pro" horn one day.
I do wish I had a tenor sax still. I played on the high school one, but never bought my own. It was also a bundy.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-11-10 00:03
My first clarinet (to own) was an Buffet E&S . Still have it, since it plays pretty darned well, is a steady backup instrument, and I wouldn't get nearly enough $$$ should I sell it for what I think it's worth so it'd be pointless to sell it. I keep it around as a backup (NOTE: not for sentimental reasons, only because trying to sell it would be inefficient . . . I wouldn't get enough money to buy something comparable to it as a backup)
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Bill
Date: 2005-11-10 00:18
Chris,
What is it about Series 9's? I'm thinking of getting one.
Bill.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2005-11-10 01:08
My first horn was a Holton "Collegiate" metal clarinet, one-piece body in gold lacquer with silver-colored keys. Fancy white no-name mouthpiece, too. But what I REALLY wanted was a baritone sax--I'd been to see Rock around the Clock, the movie...or whatever the movie was called that featured Bill Haley & the Comets, one of whom was playing this awe-inspiring piece of plumbing which I later found out was a baritone sax. I HAD to have that baritone sax!!! Unfortunately, my public school band teacher knew her onions, and insisted it would be better to start me on clarinet. Hence the Holton, which I struggled with (suffering from a distinct lack of motivation due to having to play that shrimpy little clarinet instead of the honkin big baritone). Soon, the Holton was replaced by a Noblet wood model ($189.50, with breathtakingly sparkly plated keys and a sumptuous plush case), and I started listening compulsively to Benny Goodman, both of which were powerful motivations that got me practicing more & playing better. The other powerful motivation at that time was my junior high school band director, Bruno Laakko, who had a) fought in the Russo-Finnish war and used to entertain us 7th and 8th-graders with war stories in band class, and b) led pioneering swing bands in Helsinki before the war (you can Google him & see...some of his prewar stuff is on cd), and who ended up somehow teaching a bunch of snotnoses in suburban Maryland the rudiments of the Belwyn Band Builder. He would occasionally bring in his tenor sax and entertain us by playing along with his pre-war records, which was a treat (even more so in retrospect, as I think back on it now). (He also wore bow ties and drove a '55 Thunderbird with a continental kit, but that's another story.)
I imagine my folks traded the Holton in on the Noblet, which I still have. The keys have lost a lot of sparkle, and there's a chip in the lower-joint tenon when the case came open, spilling the horn out onto the street while I was horsing around at the schoolbus stop (eighth grade). The case is barely holding together & still has the electrical tape I wound around the handle in ninth grade when the tolex wore off. The horn plays pretty well, considering. It's a little stuffy and the sound is much smaller than my R13, at least with the Borbeck mouthpiece. (I used a Penzel-Mueller "George Jenney" signature mouthpiece, back in high school, which I also still have.)
Whew. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I feel much better now.
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Author: OboeAtHeart
Date: 2005-11-10 01:08
I have a metal Conn clarinet, and I love it. Use it for marching band. It plays well in tune, has a great tone and is VERY loud.
*~"The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument- the voice of heroic love."~*
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Author: OboeAtHeart
Date: 2005-11-10 01:14
Oh, right, and my first horns:
My Bb was a plastic yamaha that I loan out to people in marching band who don't have plastic horns of their own anymore. It's a good little instrument and has been very faithful.
A plastic Selmer Bundy Eb clarinet that saw me to all-state my freshman year.
My first wood horn of my own was a Pete Fountain Dynamic H Leblanc. A great horn that I love dearly. I was given it, of course, on the condition I would never sell it. The local repairman put scores in the D/A key trying to fix the poor thing - made me very mad. I'm thinking of sending it off somewhere to get it completely restored again. It unfortunately has a long crack (well pinned and repaired) in the upper joint.
*~"The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument- the voice of heroic love."~*
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Author: Markael
Date: 2005-11-10 01:32
I still have my old wooden Conn, but it probably should go into the dumpster. It is corroded.
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Author: carrielj
Date: 2005-11-10 01:56
My first Clarinet was a Wooden Noblet 45. I still have it. My son took up clarinet last year in 6th grade and so I had my old 45 fixed back up for him. A friend of mine gold plated all of the keys for my son, it's stunning. Now my son has moved on to playing Bass CL, so I guess this beauty will hang around for the grandchildren....I still open the case now and again just to take a peak and say "hello".
Carrie
Carrie
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-11-10 04:22
I have the first clarinet my parents bought for me but not the first one I played. I can't remember what the first one was, but within a few weeks for some reason I can't remember now I ended up with a Signet 100 that was already cracked in the UJ then. It had been pinned, and I ended up playing it for about 4 years before my parents bought me the same R13 I used through college and grad school, and even to this day.
Unfortunately the Signet is unplayable now due to "pad weevils" (so says my usual tech guy)....
Katrina
who owns more clarinets than she can afford to at this point...
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2005-11-10 05:12
My Evette Schaeffer, bought new by my parents about 1965, for 150 USD. Played it the other day in an acoustic blues jam in a bar, with my 5JB -- which did NOT come with the horn. ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
The first clarinet I ever PLAYED was the school loaner I used right before the E-S, a metal clarinet.
Steve Epstein
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2005-11-10 06:13
I still have my first clarinet, which is a Vito Eb clarinet. When I started to learn clarinet (before I was 7 years old) my hands were too small for a Bb clarinet, and my teacher heard that in Holland some kids start on Eb clarinet. My grandparents were in the USA and brought back a Vito Eb for me (none are available in my country). So that's why my first clarinet was an Eb.
Post Edited (2005-11-10 07:07)
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Author: Buster Brown
Date: 2005-11-10 12:25
Still have mine. A wooden Noblet from 1948. Still plays well. Not as nice as my (actually my daughter's) 1975 Evette S or one year old R13 Vintage.
Wonder what the Noblets worth today?
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Author: archer1960
Date: 2005-11-10 12:30
Yes, I still have my plastic Vito Resotone from about 1971. I wasn't as serious about music as many here, so it didn't get the use/wear that many of you put on yours, but I played it from 6th grade through 12th, and several years later in a church ensemble.
Then a few years ago, my son played it while taking lessons for a year or so, but didn't stick with it.
I dug it out a couple of weeks a go just to fool around, and discovered that it needs some pad work (surprise, surprise!), but is still in otherwise good shape.
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Author: CJB
Date: 2005-11-10 12:36
Yes my B&H plastic Regent - still does good service every Christmas when mulled wine convinces me that carols in freezing conditions sound like a good idea.
Actually I still have all of my instruments - somehow I can always convince myself that a back-up instrument is a good thing, though as I'm now running out of space and can't afford a bigger house maybe I ought to let some things go.
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2005-11-10 14:27
My first clarinet was a Selmer Bundy that was part plastic (mouthpiece and bell) and part wood. That's the way it was made. It was a step-up from the all-plastic model. That was 1961. It was a rent-purchase thing from the local music store where I still buy clarinets. Sadly, I sold it in 1968 to help pay for a 1959 Volvo PV-544 (the round, old-fashioned body). The Volvo caught on fire one day on my way home from school and I barely escaped before it exploded. It had a leak in the fuel line that ran over the manifold pipe (poor design). A very sad tale. I only had liability insurance, so the payments continued. I should have kept the clarinet.
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Author: GoatTnder
Date: 2005-11-10 14:58
Sadly, no. My first clarinet was a plastic Yamaha (circa 1989 vintage). And I used to carry it from class to class because the music room wasn't always open in the morning, thus disallowing me to leave it in my locker. And, of course, occasionally I'd forget it was there. And then I'd have to go back to my classes and see which one it was in. Well, long about my Junior year of high school, someone else found it first. Needless to say, I keep closer watch on my instruments now.
Andres Cabrera
South Bay Wind Ensemble
sbwe@sbmusic.org
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Author: Tim P
Date: 2005-11-10 16:18
Yes I do. I got mine used when I was in 5th grade. ((1966). It is a wooden Conn Director and is just about what you would expect from this model. I just bought one on E-bay jsut to get some parts. It is now in playing condition but I prefer my newer one.
What I like best in the old case. a Hard case with plenty of storage compartments and ample room to carry music. I use the old Conn case to to tote around my "real" clarinet.
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Author: Brent
Date: 2005-11-10 17:01
Yep. My first was an instrument that had quite a bit of history accumulated before i was born. Bought used by my grandparents for my father sometime before WW2, this clarinet played in a military band aboard a battleship, crossed the equator 22 times and survived at least one kamikaze attack. It has played in college bands and the Rochester Philharmonic. It also survived my elementary and Jr High school years. It's a LeBlanc with the wonderful Stubbins Bb/register mechanism, which still works flawlessly after all these years. I play it almost none at all now, because it hasn't quite the sound and feel that i am used to.
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Author: John O'Janpa
Date: 2005-11-10 20:09
My 1955 Signet Special which was the first clarinet I "owned", is still my primary clarinet.
Rented a plastic Bundy for a few months before my band teacher determined that I was probably going to stick with it and advised my parents to go for the Signet.
Is George Washington's axe still George Washingtons axe if the handle has been replaced three times and the head replaced twice?
I'm on my second bell, and second register key, and probably 5th set of pads. Also have replaced a few springs here and there.
Still have the "step up" Selmer HS* (oval on table) mouthpiece that cost $12
in 1955 but I no longer use it.
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Author: Dori
Date: 2005-11-10 21:42
My first clarinet was a wooden one purchased used. I don't remember the manufacturer as I didn't know anything about brand names in those days, just that wood was "better" than plastic. (I changed that thinking in college when I was pleasantly surprised by a plastic Bundy.)
That first instrument played even after it cracked when I sat on it. Still, I wanted a new one so I saved my allowance and my father put in the rest to buy a Selmer Signet Special in 1970.
Technically it is not my first clarinet, but I've been playing it ever since so maybe that counts for something. I have no plans to replace it. In fact I will be using it a reheasal in 2 hours.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-11-11 00:13
Bill,
I just like large bore Selmers - I think the 'Centered Tone' is probably the best they've made, though I've never tried the earlier 'Balanced Tone' to compare the two.
The Series 9 does have a smaller bore (and the 9* is smaller still, but still bigger than a Series 10), but still large in comparison to modern French instruments.
And the altissimo register is effortless on them all as well - my teacher (an RC Prestige player) was envious at how easily the altissimo spoke (on my CTs) in comparison to his. The bottom register is very free and full as well - I'm currently doing 'Guys And Dolls' and let the 1st reed player try my Series 9, he plays a Yamaha CX and was blown away by my Selmer, even the throat Bb (just using the A and speaker keys) is clearer on mine in comparison to his Yamaha.
But to be fair, the older Yamaha clarinets from the '70s seem to be based largely on Series 9s.
Look out for an S to W serial numbered Series 9 - I think these are the best made ones, even though I do play an A series from 1978 (I was tempted to do a swap with someone last weekend who had a U series full Boehm Bb).
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Author: AJN
Date: 2005-11-11 19:43
Sure do. It's a Buffet "Academy Model" bought new in the fall of 1957. Having been put in the hands of a 9-year old kid, it really went through the wars for its first few years, but always played great. With adequate maintenance over the intervening time it still plays fine and is my backup (to an R13 made in 1962) to this day. Great sentimental value and a pretty good instrument too. Hard to beat that.
AJN
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Author: coasten1
Date: 2005-11-12 23:51
Still have and use my Evette Buffet plastic clarinet. It is 26 years old. Mostly used now for outdoor playing in bad weather. Still plays like it did 26 years ago. Like a plastic clarinet.
Tony
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Author: MSK
Date: 2005-11-14 00:52
My first clarinet (in 1976) was a new Artley plastic model. I kept it for marching band after I upgraded to a Buffet R13 as a teenager. The original was stolen, but replaced with a nearly identical one. I still have that replacement. It mostly sits in the corner, but I dug it out recently when my good clarinet was in the shop. The tone was decent, but the intonation was much worse than I remembered. I still own and play my original wood clarinet.
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Author: KellyA
Date: 2005-11-14 04:59
My fascination with the clarinet started at a pawn shop! I was on a family trip in Texas and we had stopped at a pawn shop with several clarinets for sale. After some begging and pleading, my parents agreed to get an old wooden tarnished piece of Bb junk with a chipped reed in the stalest case you can imagine! I remember putting it together and trying to make sounds, squeek! hiss! buzz! That clarinet survived until I got a replacement bundy mazzeo model for christmas. The original clarinet eventually ended up in the trash because I disected it and tried to give it a bath!!!!!
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2005-11-14 16:58
I played a Bundy through grade and HS. When I took clarinet up again and bought a Concerto I sold the Bundy through a music teacher to one of her students. Another generation gets to play it which is far better than it sitting in my closet. No regrets at all...adeu
Best
Rick
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Author: Neil
Date: 2005-11-14 23:06
I started on a Vito back in 1966. Sometime around 1982 while I was over in Hawaii my brother loaned it to his friend's daughter. He got it back sometime in the '90's I guess and his daughter played it for a while. After I started playing again I asked him about it and he figured it was around somewhere. I got back home last year for a funeral but my brother was over in Iraq, his kids showed up with it though. I use it now for outdoor playing.
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The Clarinet Pages
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![[frown]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie2.gif)
When I asked for it back a few years later -- they didn't have it. ![[mad]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie9.gif)
I think they probably sold it at some point. ![[hot]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/hot.gif)
