 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: EbClarinet
Date: 2023-02-06 01:32
I want to buy the Selmer Ab piccolo clarinet. I've fund some #4 Reeds for it, but I've read in this site that the instrument is out of tune. R there other brands of this instrument? Is it difficult to play in the altissimo register?
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/mbtldsongministry/
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Author: Hunter_100
Date: 2023-02-06 19:01
Do you know where to even find one? I believe Ab instruments are rather hard to come by. You may want to buy the instrument first before the reeds!
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Author: bradfordlloyd
Date: 2023-02-06 20:12
Attachment: Screen Shot 2023-02-06 at 11.03.32 AM.jpg (280k)
I purchased a Rampone & Cazzani Ab piccolo clarinet several years ago when I saw someone list it on eBay for a very low price (picture attached). After refurbishing it, buying mouthpiece and reeds, and working with it for a while, I found it unmanageable for me -- just too small to play with any skill or dexterity with my large fingers, and a tiny embouchure that was hard to accommodate.
After discovering that there was almost no literature written for it (most that I could find was part of Austrian schrammel music or clarinet choirs), and the challenges with playing it, I sold it. For a nice profit, actually.
The woman who bought it told me that she had been on a waiting list from the manufacturer for 2-3 years for a new one, and they couldn't promise when she would get the horn.
It was fun to have and play -- everything about it is impossibly small! But I haven't missed it at all.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2023-02-06 20:21
Selmer haven't made Ab sopraninos to my knowledge (going by past catalogues) and Buffet probably haven't made them within the last 60 years - here's a listing for a 1955 Buffet Ab sopranino:
https://www.clarinetsdirect.net/store/p147/Buffet-A-Flat-Clarinet.html#/
Leblanc were the last of the big name French makers to make them (they probably last made them in the late '90s) and now it's just Ripamonti that offers them in Boehm system, unless you plan on playing German system and several German makers offer them and also G sopraninos. They were made by some Italian makers (Orsi, Rampone&Cazzani and maybe others) in the past.
Ripamonti Ab sopraninos currently retail for €4,800.00 and are special order only:
https://www.ripamusic.com/prodotto/317ripa-clarinetto-piccolo-lab/
The smallest clarinets you'll get from Selmer, Buffet and Yamaha are Eb clarinets as well as some other makers as well as relatively inexpensive plastic and ebonite student models (eg. Bundy, Vito and a lot of Chinese ones). There's far more music written for Eb clarinets than there is for Ab sopranino clarinets.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2023-02-06 20:29)
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2023-02-06 20:29
Does Selmer even make Ab clarinets anymore? I know they made a metal one in the past but I'd be very surprised if they've made one in the past 50 years.
Buffet will make them on request, I've seen one with the newer Buffet logo.
I personally have an Orsi, by far the best one I've tried. Intonation with the stock mouthpiece is manageable as is the finger spacing. The build quality leaves a lot to be desired however.
Ripa is the only other manufacturer I know of currently offering Boehm system instruments. The one I tried was okay but had modifications including a custom mouthpiece.
-JDbassplayer
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