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Behn Barrel again...

Author: donald
Date: 2015-09-12 01:45

Kia ora,
I posted this last week, then went to edit my original post but got interupted, and was then busy for 24 hours- when I returned back to the BB it had gone... apologies to those who had contributed to the thread only to have it disappear... Since this was originally posted I have had another hour long session to test some of the claims I made re intonation, and I stand by my original assessement.

Author: donald (---.jetstream.xtra.co.nz - (Spark New Zealand) Auckland, E7 New Zealand)
Date: 2015-09-05 14:04

(I am sure that there was an existing thread started by someone who had tried these, but I couldn't find it using the search function)

Kia ora,
I was reccently sent clarinet barrels made by Brad Behn from hard rubber and have been really quite impressed by them. He shipped two of them for me to try, and I've now had about a week of regular playing on the 66mm barrel (in the "standard/traditional" form) Here is what Brad wrote to me about them....

"I have two designs - one which is slender but a standard or traditional form, and the other is more of an hour-glass shape. They are both made with the same bore which has a slightly more extreme taper than Moennig barrels. Their design is to be as low-mass as possible thereby creating ring, resonance, and flexibility from their body-mass, and center, depth, and hold from their slightly smaller bore."

Note that his comments are in regards to DESIGN, he does not makes any claims regarding the material the barrels are made of (which I do not believe to be his unique hard rubber compound that he uses for his mouthpieces)

I play a Buffet Festival B flat clarinet, and an R13 A clarinet, and found the 66mm barrel actually works well on both instruments (slightly under lower pitch on the A clarinet, as would be expected, but after a very short warm up period it plays very nicely in tune)
I spent some time comparing the intonation (on both clarinets) between these Behn barrels and various other aftermarket barrels I have (and the stock barrels that came with the instruments) and found that the intonation was definitely improved using the Behn. I have always expected the various aftermarket barrels to "improve" intonation rather than completely cure the characteristics/shortcomings of the instrument, and don't expect a barrel to make a clarinet play perfectly in tune. Most of the barrels I have bought over the years have brought some improvement, a few times I've been disappointed to discover, after extended playing, a shortcoming that wasn't immediately obvious.
With the Behn barrel, I've not only found the intonation to be improved considerably, not perfect but a lot closer than my other options, but after a week have no drawbacks... no unexpected shortcoming that I had missed. The tuning is pretty darn good.
As a mouthpiece maker Brad values "hold"- which (if I understand him) is the tendency for the equiptment to maintain tonal shape at extreme dynamics. Of course this will be very dependent of reeds/player etc, but the mouthpiece and barrel can greatly influence this. These new Behn barrels certainly DO seem to provide this "hold". I can sit back and let the sound ring and glow, but as I push dynamic and articulation to extremes it maintains shape much more easily than on my other barrels.
There is a real sense of evenness too, impressively so. No regions of the instrument that seem to suffer a loss of resonance or compromised tone (almost all my other barrels have a region of the instrument where I find myself thinking "this is why I got this", but a spot where I'll think "ah, I am having to try a bit harder here"). Interestingly both a flute player and a Jazz Sax player whom I asked to listen to me playing on the Behn barrel commented (without me promting them) that they could perceive an evenness in tone and response.
The sound?
Well, of course there is the old saying that whatever you play on you end up sounding like yourself.... but at the same time the greater or smaller variations that may come from the equiptment can influence the direction you are having to work toward....
These barrels help me make a bright, compact yet vibrant sound. I can't really think of any better words at the moment. All of my colleagues responded favourably when I played the Behn barrels (so far I haven't actually played to other clarinet players, just to flute/saxophone/violin/cello/pianist/singer). Half of them then said they liked the richness of my wooden barrels when I switched over, but it's hard to know what to make of that (and they were all standing next to me, rather than being in a large hall). One colleague said that the Behn barrel had a smaller sound than my Segal, another said that the Behn was the "biggest, loudest"... so go figure.
The bottom line is this- everyone responded positively to what they heard BEFORE they had to compare.
NZ has just gone through a phase of being obsessed with making a "fat/dark/big/German" sound (yes, I know that many German players sound very bright, and that those words mean something different to each person who uses them) and it's obviously a fact that there are players who will look for these qualities in a barrel, rather than a brighter/ring.
However I'm really enjoying a feeling of security that my Behn barrel gives me- from the evenness, the hold and the improved intonation.
I'm definitely going to stick with it, and even if it doesn't become my all time favourite barrel it's upped my expectations no end.
Certainly worth a try.
dn

(other aftermarket barrels used for comparison were Chadash, Moennig, Zinner/Lomax, Backun, Schwenk-und-Seggelke and a very fine rubber lined barrel by Les Nicholson)

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