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 Re: Problems with intonation in Wurlitzer Reform Boehm
Author: Tom Henson 
Date:   2008-02-28 17:09

Hello Menedez,

I also have a set of the Wurlitzer 185 model RB clarinets and have extensive knowledge about these instruments. I have had my Bb now for 3 years and my A for 2 years.

It is not a new thing that these clarinets have their own specific tuning problems which are well known to those of us that play on them.

I went through all of the same problems as you did coming from a Buffet R13. This is a very complex issue and let me say that the solution to this issue involves several things.

1). Wurlitzer plastic mouthpieces can be great and yes, some professional in Germany do use them quite successfully. Karl Leister is one. They can be quite good indeed if you pick one that works well for you. Rubber mouthpieces will have a darker, softer, warmer sound (whatever you call it) because the material is not as hard, so many people do prefer to play on them instead of the stock Wurlitzer mouthpieces. I myself play on a Viotto N1+2 and love it.

2). You must relearn your embouchure and shape of your mouth. You will tend to play very sharp in the left hand clarion until you start to open your vocal tract up and relax your throat more. Once you find a good match for the mouthpiece and reed, opening up and relaxing your throat will drop the sharpness of these left hand clarion notes at least 10 cents. You can also use the fingers on the right hand to cover and bring them down as well.

3). Try different mouthpieces to see which one works best for you. However, I can tell you that you will probably change mouthpieces again once you start to understand how to change your embouchure and vocal tract. I did. Little by little, I have gone from a more open mouthpiece down to a more close one, more similar to what is used in Germany. Many people also swear by the Viotto N1 which has a tip opening on 1.00mm. That would be considered closed by French standards.

4). Find the right brand of German reed that works best for you and your mouthpiece. I tried just about every German reed I could find and settled on several that worked very well for me. Here are some brands to look at:
Sinus
Foglietta
White Master
BK Klassic
Peter Leuthner
AW (Willscher)

The reed that you pick will be the one that best matches the facing of the mouthpiece.

5). Barrels. Each Wurlitzer model 185 clarinet comes with 2 barrels. I asked for 3 different sizes to give me more options and this helped me find a compromise where the left hand chalumeau was not too flat and the clarion was not too sharp.

6). Forget using the French barrels if you ordered them and just use the ones made for the German RB mouthpieces.

7). Do NOT make any alterations on your clarinet unless you want to void your warranty with Wurlitzer. They will refuse to work on it if it has been altered in any way. If this does not bother you, then I would suggest not taking on the task of tuning your clarinet yourself because this is a system that you do not understand. Each note on a Wurlitzer clarinet is tuned to both the tone hole where the note vents and then to the sub-tone (the tone hole nearest to the main note). This means that each note is dependent on a second tone hole to play in tune with itself, and is also part of the reason why tuning on these instruments are so complex and problematic (in my opinion). This double venting does produce a wonderful, resonant sound however.

8). It is my feeling that Wurlitzer tunes their RB clarinets with a main goal of the voicing of the note more than the intonation. If they have a choice of how the note sounds vs. how it tunes, they will go with how it sounds. It may mean the note is not quite in tune, but will sound more even when played together in a scale.

9). Lastly, if you still want to pursue the goal of improving the intonation, consult another respected German maker who has a track record of working on these clarinets for other professionals (mainly from the Netherlands) and knows how to properly fix them. Here are some suggestions:
Harald Huyng
Swenk & Segelke
Wolfgang Dietz
Leitner & Kraus

You will notice that I did not include Wurlitzer in this list. The professional players that I have had contact with who had the same intonation issues that you are having made little progress going back to Wurlitzer. They ended up going to one of those listed above and consulting with them for help.

There are also other independent repair persons in Germany that have very good recommendations from players and who do excellent work.

10). Sell your Wurlitzer's and buy a set of Leitner & Kraus RB clarinets. I just bought a new set of these and the intonation on them is excellent. Better than even my Buffet R13's that had been customized and tuned. The bore on them is different and that is most likely why they tune better.

Wurlitzer re-designed the bore on the 185 several years ago and this is when most of the intonation problems really started for most people. They made the bore on the upper joint bigger so that it would allow a more flexible pitch and be closer in sound character to a French clarinet. This did change the sound and flexibility, but it also impacted the tuning on the left hand. You get flat throat tones and very sharp clarion notes. Very wide 12th's in other words. This also required that they change their RB barrel design as well to accommodate a larger opening at the top of the upper joint. Older Wurlitzer mouthpieces do not work so well with this new bore design. I went back to them and tried out many more mouthpieces until I did find several P4's that worked very well when using Foglietta model B & D reeds, or Sinus model D # 3 reeds.

In the end, you may make some progress to improve the intonation issues which brings you close enough to live with. The main reason people end up buying the Wurlitzer RB clarinets is because of the sound, not because they play well in tune. When you finally figure out all of the things above, you will just begin to explore the sound possibilities that these clarinets offer.

Please feel free to e-mail me off list if you have any questions.

Tom Henson
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