I thought of Terry's post here when I found this today, as is usual I don't know anything of how legitimate the seller is, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Selmer-Mazzeo-Clarinet-Series-9-France-almost-unused-/262818034025?...and I (for now, at least) have one of the Selmer (Paris) ones, with silver plated keys (done after a rebuild) and intact operating mechanisms. It's a good horn, but only that - not good enough to play all the time.
(Every other Bundy and Signet Mazzeo horn offered for sale that I ever saw, handled, or bought (and returned to the lying bastards that insisted they were "complete and fully operational") had the mechanism disabled, including one that had it mangled but still in the case.)
Now, if I had managed to land Rosario's own full Boehm/Mazzeo horn, I might have felt differently...
I have a Bundy Mazzeo in working order.I am just curious. How many of us have a Mazzeo in working order? I have a Selmer 100 Special.
Standard Boehm clarinets have been hexxed by this since they were invented. (of course, we can just blame the flute).My clarinet history powers are slowly increasing ...
It hadn't occurred to me that some folks would dislike a horn playing a note properly. It does make sense. That flat sounds sucky on a lot of clarinets, so there are probably some composers that recognize that fact and/or it might make blending in a group a bit more difficult. Good comment, Steve!
I've found the side trill keys better in fast passages especially if you have to go up to C and back down. But once again, the shortness of the tube for C has a thinner tonal quality than a long C. Thus the reason for a FB.I've never played a Mazzeo, but when I have to play an exposed throat Bb, I always try to use the A key and the third side key. Much cleaner and more in tune. Maybe not in a fast moving passage , but for a "potato" note (thanks, Terry for the nomenclature!), it works great.