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Selmer Prologue Tenons and Sockets...

Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-09-13 21:00

I've only ever seen one brand new Selmer Prologue back in the mid '90s when it came directly from the distributor, but have just finished servicing one which is from just before that time (an F series) and was surprised to see the top joint tenons are plastic sleeved as are the lower of the barrel sockets and lower joint socket. They haven't completely lined the sockets, just the walls are plastic sleeved.

I'm surprised they did this on their entry level clarinet to be honest as surely that is only going to put the production cost up, but I think it's still a good idea as the tenons and sockets fit nicely and probably never had any problems with binding as some all wooden tenons and sockets can do on new instruments.

Not sure if they carried on doing this over the course of the production run of the Prologue, but I would have preferred to see fully lined sockets (instead of just the sides) where the end grain in the bottoms of the sockets was also covered, but I sealed them with wax which is what I normally do on unlined sockets (and the ends of tenons where they aren't fitted with metal tenon caps).

Another nice feature on this one are push fit speaker and thumb tubes with double O-rings instead of being fitted with shellac to seal them, so these are easy to remove when it comes to cleaning and oiling the bore. The tonehole chimneys are ebonite inserts on this one instead of being integral or inset wooden ones.

Things I don't like are there's no cut-out on the underside of the throat A touchpiece so the LH1 vent pad cup is limited as to how much venting it can have and the smaller pad cups are relatively thick sided so pads are either a very tight or very loose fit with only a 0.5mm difference in pad size when using leather pads.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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