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Author: Tom Henson
Date: 2009-01-10 01:45
Hello Lam,
Sorry for the delayed response as I have been quite busy at work.
Regarding the sound or voicing changes that can be done with different barrels on the Leitner & Kraus V-420 system I have little experience to make any conclusions.
The reason is I did not have the opportunity to go to their workshop to pick the clarinets up and thus have not tried any other barrels than was shipped with them. I do have 6 barrels that they shipped because I wanted to make sure that I had a wide range of tuning possible. So I have short barrels for A444 down to longer ones for A440. It is my belief that they tried to match the sound on these barrels to make them similar and that would make sense to me.
I have read several posts on a German forum that allude to the different sounds depending on the barrel used. I have asked them what changes can be expected from using different barrels, but I think something got lost in the translation in their English. They simply said they can make different sounds. I hope to visit their workshop in the next year so I can see for myself.
On another note (no pun intended), I want to follow up on the comment that Herr Segelke made regarding Wurlitzer clarinets because I think I understand what he was trying to say.
As I had said before regarding the quality of workmanship, Wurlitzer is passionate about making the best clarinets that they can. They do, however, hold fast to their own idea of sound and how a clarinet should play.
It is entirely true that when Wurlitzer hands you your new clarinet that you have to find the soul of that instrument. You have to learn to play it, not the other way around. Bernd Wurlitzer once told me that I needed to make my clarinet my own. This was very early on when I first got my Bb. At the time, I did not understand what he meant.
If you consider that every single Reform Boehm clarinet made today is based upon the one that Fritz Wurlitzer designed over 50 years ago, then you understand that Wurlitzer is the source while all the others are derivatives. This is not meant to say that they others are not good, but if you want one that holds to the original design concept then you go to Wurlitzer.
Some may see the attitude of Wurlitzer as being arrogant or aloof, but I see it as a tremendous sense of pride in their workmanship. They hand you the instrument with pride, but then you have to find the soul of it on your own. They make it, but you have to learn how to play it. This is what Herr Segelke meant. This is a tradition that Wurlitzer still holds today.
Some of the newer German makers have a desire to make a product that can be marketed to the masses and have a wider acceptance, so they can not afford to make a clarinet that is too unique for lack of a better word. I would make the comparison of Porsche who some say still understands how to make a pure sports car, even as more modern manufacturing techniques have come. They still find a way to build in that special something that holds fast to the tradition of their heritage. Some who own them say they have a soul that is unique compared to other car brands.
This is exactly what Wurlitzer gives you. They take the wood and make each clarinet to the best they can and then give it to you. It is then up to you to find that soul and make it your own. Learn how to get the most from it.
This may sound silly, but think about the fact that every high end clarinet made, French included, is unique in some way or another. Clarinets that are mass produced on an assembly line are made by computers to the same specs day in and day out. This is a good thing, but it does not take into account the living nature of the wood. That is why you can play 20 R-13's in a row and every single one will play and sound a little different. This is even true of German clarinets as well, but to a much, much lesser degree. There is so much more consistency sound wise.
That is why on a mass produced clarinet one will only bring out the best when it is properly set up by hand. It takes a highly skilled master craftsman to work the wood, and all systems into a finely balanced harmony of a musical machine.
This is why no professional today would buy a new mass produced clarinet without having their favorite technician work their magic on it.
In my opinion, it takes someone with manufacturing & design knowledge to understand enough about what they have in their hands to bring out the absolute best in a clarinet. Morrie Backun is certainly one of those and there are more like him out there today. In the past, Hans Moennig was the absolute recognized best at working on R-13's. Buffet even came to him when they needed help in fixing design issues on the R-13. But you must remember that Hans was first a woodwind maker from Germany. I can tell you that the R-13's that Hans worked on had more in common with German clarinets than French. Robert Marcellus is one example, in particular. But that is another story.
So there is a very big difference in someone that replaces pads and someone that manufactures and designs them for a living in what they can bring out. Sometimes they are both. Most technicians would probably fall somewhere in between.
These are the people who are sought out and who have a waiting list a mile long to have clarinets worked on, and for good reason. I call these types of technicians "finishers". They take over where the factory left off and finish the clarinet to the best it will play. Of course, they can only do so much given what has been given to them to work with. Sometimes the result is amazing, and sometimes it is just so so. It all depends on the clarinet itself.
The only problem with this formula is that you first manufacture the clarinet to the same exacting standards blank after blank after blank and then after the clarinet is sold you find out that one piece of wood did not react the same way as another and the end result is a clarinet that may be mis-matched in some way. This type of manufacturing process does not take the living nature of wood into account to a very great degree. Wouldn't it be better if the person making the clarinet was also the one that "finished" it?
Now were are talking about the smaller custom makers like Rossi, Eaton, and a few more that exist today. The thing that amazed me in doing research on custom clarinet makers is that, while there are now more custom makers of French clarinets than ever before, there are still 5 times that amount just in Germany alone that make both the Ohler and Reform Boehm systems. This does not even take into account more in Austria.
These workshops are run by families that go back generations and some of them have been in business over 100 years. The depth of skill and knowledge that has been passed down from one generation to another through the apprentice concept is second to none. There is nothing that they do by accident, and someone picking up a Wurlitzer clarinet for the first time simply would not understand everything that went into it. I know I still don't, but every day I learn more.
Example, I learned that Wurlitzer is so precise in the setup of the pads that they have a way of allowing a small amount of air leaks in order to balance the bore resistance. This results in more resonance and a subtle difference in sound. I have experimented with using the absolute bottle stopper approach on my Bb Wurlitzer and it simply did not work. It then sounded just like a French clarinet and with a bright, edgy sound. It had lost the resonance to a degree. When I realized what had been lost, I had to pay Wurlitzer to put it back to they way it was. Lesson learned.
In Germany, there are actually technical schools where you can get a degree in woodwind design and manufacturing. I am not aware of any here in the US, but they may exist. There are also different skill levels taught and the highest is to become a "master" maker which takes some years. It would easily be the equivalent of a full university degree and can take years to get.
Keep in mind at places like Wurlitzer, that you don't even get in the door as a finisher unless you first have a master maker's degree or the equivalent in long years at the job from another highly respected maker. Yes, they still use apprentices to shape and cut the blanks and any other job that is done on a CNC type machine where the chance of mistakes is very slim. But only the masters are allowed to do the actual setups and the tuning of the clarinet.
How many of you have see the TV series called American Chopper? This is a reality TV program that takes you through the design and building of a custom made motorcycle. Every single piece of metal that goes into the making is custom made and hand fit. They first manufacture all the parts and then do a test fitting. This is called a mock up. Once all of the parts have been perfectly fitted, then they take the whole thing apart again and they are sent out for plating or painting. Only then is the final assembly done. This is exactly how a Wurlitzer clarinet is made to a very great degree. The master makes the keys or finishes them and then hand fits them to the clarinet. Once all keys have been perfectly fitted, they are then sent out to be plated. Wurlitzer, like most of the German makers, uses silver plating that is easily 2-3 times as thick as what you would find on any mass manufactured clarinet. The keys then have to be refitted to the clarinet to take the plating into account because it is so thick.
The wood is shaped and bored using CNC machines for their accuracy, but every other single piece is hand made. Even the keys are made from blank stampings of German silver. The blanks are simply flat bars that are then bent, formed, soldered, and shaped using hand tools to make each and every key. Even the screws start out as simply a long steel rod. They are cut, hand threaded, and hand ground to fit exactly each key. Each spring is cut from steel wire and then hand shaped, fitted, and then hand blued to obtain just the right spring action and resistance.
Each clarinet that Wurlitzer makes is so unique, that all the keys have a number hand scribed into them so that when the clarinet goes back to the workshop for an overhaul they do not mix up the keys with another one. They are fitted that exact. When you order a set of clarinets from one of these makers, they make sure that the same person does the finishing on both so that they are as identical as possible. No wonder these clarinets cost a small fortune. Wurlitzer told me that each model 185 clarinet takes a little over 100 man hours to make. How many hours does it take to make an R-13. Twenty maybe?
In the end, regardless of the maker's stamp on the clarinet, it is still a unique piece of work that came from the hands on the one person finishing it. How well it plays and sounds will be dependent on many things like quality of materials and such, but it will still be unique.
Tom Henson
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Re: Problems with intonation in Wurlitzer Reform Boehm new |
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The Clarinet BBoard
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