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Plateau Clarinets

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
I wanted to mention this, en passant.

Most clarinets are designed with at least seven open holes, such as this (the seventh hole is where your left hand thumb goes, on the back of the horn).

However, some people either have fingers that are way too small or have some other hand problem that prevents them from being able to cover these holes, so they get something called a "plateau clarinet", such as this.

Here's the unfortunate thing: only one company (that I've found, at least), currently makes the plateau clarinets: Leblanc. The model they make is the one I linked to, above, the Vito 7214P. The worse thing: it's very, very expensive new: $1595. And it's plastic.

There is an option. Buy a used one.

eBay is generally your best bet, with (currently) three plateau clarinets selling in the neighborhood of $300 - $500 (like this one). All you have to do is search for "plateau clarinet".

However, remember your standard eBay purchasing guidelines:

* Assume that it will need at least $300 in repair.
* If it says it has pins, bands or cracks, skip it.
* Assume that if it's not listed or seen in the ad, you're not getting it. You don't see a case? You're not getting one. You don't see a mouthpiece? You're not getting one. You don't see a particular joint (or barrel or bell)? You might not be getting one.
* Doing a quick Google search, I see that some Eb sopranino, A and D clarinets were available in plateau form. If you're a beginner, you want a Bb clarinet.

Most common plateau clarinets seem to have been made by Normandy (that's a Leblanc model), but several other manufacturers seem to have made them, including Selmer and Richard Keilwerth.
 
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I've bought used clarinets that have been pinned with great luck. But I could see a close up of the work on the ones I've purchased and I purchased from sellers who were musicians. Still it is a dice roll. And the Normandy Plateau-keyed clarinet I have does have a lot of stuffiness associated with it. But that is as compared to Buffet R-13.

Here's the pic of the plateau-keyed clarinet from the eBay sale mentioned by Pete for when that link goes away and a couple of pictures of my plateau-keyed clarinet.
 
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here's pictures of a Noblet 40 Full-Boehm Plateau Clarinet.
http://www.woodwindforum.com/forums/album.php?albumid=87

Terry, eat your heart out !!
picture.php
 
Ah...

...it's a Noblet horn with range to low Eb (and it looks to be a Bb instrument), but it does not have the articulated G# keywork, nor the Eb/Ab lever. So, it fails the "full Boehm" category test by a considerable margin.

Besides all of that, it's a plateau instrument (not a big fan), and it's a product of the (shudder) Leblanc empire.

All that having been said, the best solution for a clarinet student with slender (think young girl) fingertips is a Vito. The holes are smaller than on other student instruments, allowing for better success with finger placement for a beginner. However, once they are acclimated to placing the fingers correctly, the advancing student should be weaned of the Vito and shifted to a standard arrangement instrument.
 

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