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Re: Selmer Series 9 intonation

Author: ghuba
Date: 2006-09-30 23:54

Chris P wrote:

>
> But there are several barrel makers on here that I'm sure offer
> a suitable replacement.
>

Chris, I have actually wondered why some of the custom makers of barrels who post to this board do not offer "model specific" barrels for vintage clarinet bores. Looking at eBay sales, it appears that there are sufficient vintage clarinets of different Selmer and Leblanc models (I do not not follow Buffets) sold in a year to justify an aftermarket specifically for barrels and mouthpieces that would tend to be a very good match to the bigger bores of Selmer Ks, BTs, CTs, 9s and Leblanc LLs. My impression is that some of the intonation problems that people report with older big bore clarinets may, in part, be due to the fact that the original barrels cracked and the auction seller thought that they could simply find any other old Selmer (or Leblanc) barrel and toss it in the case without paying attention to the length or the bore (so long as the logo matched!). Of course, even if the original barrel(s) are in the case, they may have deteriorated more in terms of bore warp (becoming oval) than did the top joint of the clarinet.

As an owner of several Selmer K-BT-CT-9 and Leblanc big bore clarinets, I would probably order a number of these barrels, at least to try, if I could find a custom maker who specialized in the production of new barrels to the bore of older clarinets and also researched the length of the barrels originally supplied with these instruments. [And then maybe we could have a big thread on this BB about how the Selmer CT everybody seems to have in the closet suddenly seems to play better.] It would also be great if some custom makers produced stock barrels that would be optimally matched to the bores of the older vintage clarinets AND the modern mouthpieces many would prfer to use. Yes, I understand that I could probably send in my clarinets and mouthpieces to a custom maker and have him or her fit a barrel to that specific instrument and mouthpiece combination, but it would be easier if someone were to do the research on what the barrel dimensions should be on specific older vintage models (perhaps with certain typical modern mouthpieces based on Zinner blanks) and then could make a few variations on these barrels available for testing and purchasing.

George

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