 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2011-10-10 23:28
I've just finished restoring an old Pruefer that I bought is a dilapidated condition a while back. The woodwork is very good, closegrained and dense, the wood machining very precise and, after a cleanup, the keywork scrubbed up OK. It looks like nickel-silver.
The surprise came when I put a suitable mouthpiece on and played it. It's probably one of the best sounding instruments I've so far come across, with a velvety dark tone that a friend described as sounding like warm chocolate.
I can't see any model designation on the horn, it has metal tenon endcaps and the serial number is 21192. Preufers are a bit thin on the ground here in Australia, this is the first one I've come across. Were they all like this or have I been lucky?
Tony F.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2011-10-10 23:46
I've restored a few Pruefers, and consider them OK but not great. Among the few brands of American-made clarinets I much prefer Penzel-Muellers. I'd say you got lucky.
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Author: vintschevski
Date: 2011-10-11 14:26
Well done, Tony! Are you going to keep and play the Pruefer or will you be offering it up for sale?
I have a Pruefer Silver Throat lying about somewhere, nothing remarkable as I recall (I must re-acquaint myself with it), so I don't have a Pruefer story to relate. But I agree with David S. that some of the PMs are very nice clarinets. The Empires have always impressed me and of course the Super-Brilliante is excellent. Other models I'd maybe not praise so highly.
And what I can relate is that I am currently enjoying playing a Conn 24N hard rubber clarinet, apparently from the 1920s, which is super, I love it. [And no, it's not a 424N.] Of course it doesn't have the oompf of my Leblanc L7, but it's a fine instrument and if I had to go without the Leblanc for a gig, the Conn would go well, no worries.
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Author: Klarnetisto
Date: 2011-10-12 00:23
I've been told that the older Pruefers can be excellent, especially those with Albert system. In later years, though, they tended to make mostly student-grade instruments. Perhaps you found an older one.
Klarnetisto
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2011-10-12 15:16
Author: vintschevski (---.szxk1.cha.bigpond.net.au - (Telstra Internet) Brisbane, 04 Australia)
Date: 2011-10-11 14:26
Wrote
Well done, Tony! Are you going to keep and play the Pruefer or will you be offering it up for sale?
Hi,
I'll play it for a while and see if it continues to live up its early promise. I already have a stable of horns that I've sort of grown into, so I doubt that I'll hang on to it past the novelty stage. It would be a very good jazz horn. Still, you never know. The next project horn is another Pruefer, a hard rubber monobody.
Tony F.
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Author: vintschevski
Date: 2011-10-13 00:09
Ha, you've reminded me - I have one of those, a Pruefer "Special Model", serial number 58879. It's heavy, feels about twice the weight of my Conn 24N and is hard work to play, in comparison (keywork is chunkier and rather clumsy, at least for my fingers). It's a reasonably repectable "student clarinet", I guess.
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