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My "New" Bass Clarinet

Author: kilo
Date: 2020-01-12 23:15

I started a thread last month inquiring about the quality of Selmer Series 9 basses and whether a refurbished one might fit my needs. I've played clarinet for sixty years but only started playing bass in 2011, sporadically at first but I've really settled into it over the past year. I had begun to notice the limits to my Yamaha 221 and felt a need to upgrade.

I found an "as is" Series 9 low Eb bass (S36XX) for sale at SaxQuest and, having dealt with them before I considered them trustworthy in their description of its condition. The comments on my earlier thread were encouraging so I sent an e-mail to Glen Sargent at Second Wind Music in Lincolnville, Maine. Glen is an excellent technician, plays bass professionally, and holds those old Selmers in high regard. So I made the purchase and had it shipped directly to his shop in mid December.

I told him there was no hurry and knowing how many school instruments he's usually working on I didn't expect to hear from him until February. So I was excited and delighted when he told me I could pick it up this past Friday.

New pads and corks are a standard part of the overhaul process. He cleaned and conditioned the wood and addressed the hairline cracks at the socket of the lower joint. SaxQuest told me about this and Glen said that he finds this on almost every other old Selmer bass that he's worked on. He removed the joint ring, spread the socket a bit, and was able to work glue into the cracks. He also addressed some issues with the tone holes in the lower joint where the grain had worn away a bit and stabilized them. He asked if I wanted the keywork polished as it would be extra; I told him to go ahead, no time like the present. He play-tested it for half an hour before I showed up on Friday and adjusted the pad heights for intonation.

When I got to his shop he went over the work he'd done, we chatted a bit about clarinets, I paid him and headed back for home. Going through the battered old case I found an invoice from Saul Fromkin! He'd done a repair on the horn back in '82. Also included was nice vintage Ray Hyman neck strap! I greased all the corks and slowly assembled the instrument. This is the first "pro" bass I'd ever handled and I found the register linkages really intriguing, a lot more complex than the single lever on the Y221. One of the problems I found on the Yamaha was the momentary delay when moving from chalumeau to clarion, the brief "grunt" before the note emerged, so I was looking for improvement with this problem. I put a #3½ Legere Studio Cut tenor reed on my Fobes SF, put Cavallini on the music stand and started to play. What a difference! The tone was sweet, the response was quick and secure, the intonation close to perfect. It was nice to be able to play in tune without the neck pulled out half and inch.

I've found myself squeaking a bit — voicing is a little different from what I'm used to — and I'm still getting accustomed to the keywork but it's getting better with each practice session. Needless to say, I'm really happy with this purchase. I spent way less than a quarter the price of a new professional bass. I had considered a new Kessler but there's something about having this venerable old horn that I find very appealing and I'm proud to have a Selmer in the house again.

Post Edited (2020-01-12 23:37)

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My "New" Bass Clarinet new

kilo

2020-01-12 23:15