Untitled Document
     
Advertisement Click to advertise with us!
     

We are too few...or not?

Groovekiller said:
What kind of reed should I use on my new $800 mouthpiece?
The new ones from Vandoren. If you're using anything else, you're not a professional.

;-)

Vandoren- and Buffet-free household here. I guess that pretty much puts me at the lesser end of the food chain. :cool:
 
Vandoren free, Buffet, free but one.
Selmer, quilty as charged.

I think the dichotomy between here and SoTW is good though. Most of their members are primarily sax players, and if we can take some of our sax discussions over there, it may leave ample space for some interesting doubling discussions over here. Personally, I wouldn't want a lot of the topics that go on over there to move here. I'm rather guilty of participating in those discussions, however I like to think that I can volunteer some good information when necessary.
 
One of the comments I've made to Ed and Jim is that I have no desire for WooF to be either "SOTW-lite" or "SOTW Jr." I try to focus on the stuff we can do differently. If there's a thread that starts here that is answered fully somewhere else, I tend to post a link to that answer. Continue the discussion here, if you need!

However, I still would like to be a librarian on SOTW. I could learn a lot by combining threads and whatnot. I like doing research, but I like to get it into a more convenient form.
 
Vandoren- and Buffet-free household here. I guess that pretty much puts me at the lesser end of the food chain. :cool:
Yah. That Marigaux clarinet is JUNK. I'll give you $20 for it. I'll even pay for shipping.

:cool:
 
Selmer, quilty as charged.

To many clarinet players, this admission is more than enough to get you tarred and feathered. You can praise Selmer saxophones to high heaven, but point out some of the superior qualities of Selmer clarinets and you are an apostate.

I've been so tarred for just under fifty years now, but I have learned to bear the stigma with some pride. Others have more trouble bearing the laurels of Selmer clarinet playing status.

Mind you, it all changes once you start talking about bass clarinets. However, there too I am on the outside looking in, for I was very unhappy with the "top of the line" to low Eb bass that I tried a couple of years ago. Such is life.

And, just where Backun barrels and bells fit in all of this is still unclear to me.

And, as for those who are happy with B-H or Leblanc - well, they are out there in the wilderness somewhere...
 
Things here just seem to be more civilized. Not as much chest pounding.


Julian
 
We still wait for someone passionate enough to steamroll a sax or burn a clarinet and post a video thereof, but otherwise I won't complain. :cool:

I was going to steamroll my alto if it wasn't fixable! HAHA! ... but alas my excellent repairman is saving it from being flattened and hung on the wall HAHA
 
I love the little group that's going on.

Obviously the more the merrier, but I love that I can go away for a little bit while life is crazy and when I come back I can catch up on the threads etc.

I also love the small-town aspect of the forum ... nice, accepting, respectful people ... whom happen to have a lot of knowledge and/or be very passionate about woodwinds and music. And you get to hear from a small group of people and get a chance to learn what they are about in some small way.

I think the people that are ment to join will some how find their way through internet land. I know I did ... and I'm sure there's a lot of people found this that way.

And ......... scene.

(in a somewhat unrelated note .... I also enjoy the fact there are so many different backgrounds here in terms of music ... everything from amatures or people picking up the horn after who knows how many years, to professionals ... it's really interesting to hear so many different perspectives and thoughts on things)
 
Last edited:
I really enjoy this form as it is at the moment. I am on a flute forum and I feel like the people on there are a bit elitist especially to new people that come on and ask questions. Many times they just ignore the question.

But here, it seems like everyone knows each other, there is a lot of knowledge here, and everyone is much friendlier.
 
Elite behavior can occur in some pretty unusual situations. I've heard clarinet players go off on a line of bull when it is very clear from their statements that they have not even played the horn in question.

One area where this comes to the fore is with string ligatures. This is something that's very easy to test (given a little beeswax and some twine, and it works almost as well on a French style mouthpiece as it does on a German (grooved) one. It's not like it costs a significant amount, in any event.

Yet, bring up "string ligatures, use of same on clarinets", with many players here in these United States and they act as if you want them to cut off their left little fingers. Mind you, I'm not talking dropping the metal, leather, or whatever type completely - I'm just suggesting that they try the string approach. Not one in a dozen will even experiment.

I guess all of our German and Austrian friends are fools...
 
Yet, bring up "string ligatures, use of same on clarinets", with many players here in these United States and they act as if you want them to cut off their left little fingers.
AAAAAiiiiiiggggghhhh!!! My fingers!

I know what ya mean, Terry.

OFF TOPIC, but you mentioned it, a friend of mine from way back used a "manufactured" string ligature: it was several bands of string going around and held together with screws and "clamps" with grooves for the strings. It looked like a leather Rovner lig, only with string. It just wasn't as tightly wound as the Vandoren or Pyne models: there were gaps between the loops of string that went around the mouthpiece. Interesting looking, especially as the strings were green, IIRC. I never tried it, but the original ligatures were string, so I don't see this as a "bad" idea ....
 
OFF TOPIC, but you mentioned it, a friend of mine from way back used a "manufactured" string ligature: it was several bands of string going around and held together with screws and "clamps" with grooves for the strings.

That would be the Lorenzini, if I remember my research in the patent files correctly. Two plastic brackets with screws through the top halves of each, strings running from grooves in each bracket over the reed into corresponding grooves in the other bracket. I've got a couple of them around here somewhere, left over from the comparison tests between my patented ligature and all of the others with "similar technology" that were available in the early 1980's.

The whole string versus everything else issue is one that's not worth bringing up with clarinet players (and sax players, for that matter). The difference is quite striking if you can persuade people to try the string, but getting past that hump is the big problem. I took a hard look at the advertising costs involved with reaching the "pro/semi pro" element and quickly walked the other way.

Still, getting the patent was an education in and of itself, and well worth the limited amount of money that it cost me, all in. Had I not recently (at that time) bought a computer setup, however, I would not have attempted it. The biggest stumbling block in front of gaining a patent in the US system is not the idea itself, but rather writing and rewriting all of the paperwork needed to fly through the Patent and Trademark Office.
 
Back
Top Bottom