Bass Clarinet Neck - Better Angle?

[jan_pj]

Hi,

I've just taken delivery of a new Buffet Prestige (to Low C) and the neck that came with it seems to have the mouthpiece at quite an extreme angle. (The tip of the mouthpiece reaches 6.5 cm above the body/neck joint)

Now I have done a bit of investigation and I do appreciate the logic behind this design, namely to try to get closer to the angle a regular Bb clarinet mouthpiece would be in the mouth, however being quite short (that's me that's short and not the clarinet) this makes it quite uncomfortable for me to play.

I was wondering if anyone had any words of wisdom on alternative necks I could try which would save my own aching neck (and also reduce the embarrassment of having to use an extra-high chair when playing).

I do play saxophone, so would be quite comfortable with any neck that gave the mouthpiece a more horizontal angle if it knocked a couple of inches off the overall height.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jan

[Gandalfe]

Hi Jan, I just wandered over to my 5' 2" (62" or 157.48 centimeters) wife with my Buffet Prestige (to Low C) bass clarinet and she adjusted the peg as low as it would go and was able to play the instrument easily. She actually would have adjusted the peg up another inch for comfort.

[Carl H.]

I don't know that needing a taller chair is anything to be embarrassed about. I have a special stool I use whenever I play contra, it's just part of the setup needed to play the instrument.

I play sax and clarinet too. I hold the soprano up to keep the appropriate embouchure, which is different from that of the clarinet. If I could afford to have a different bas clarinet neck, one like yours, I'd go for it. It might take some time to get used to it, but I'd bet it would be worth it.

The straight neck can be found out there, and many of us have played them for years, because that is all there was. I think I'd invest in a chair or stool and carry it with me and take advantage of your stock neck and the advantage it has for proper airstream. Try an adjustable hight drum throne for something comfortable and cool looking that will keep you with your stock neck.

[pete]

I'm 6' 1" and didn't need a stool for the contra :). (It was a paperclip.)

I've only played one Buffet bass and that didn't have an as extreme angle as a Selmer.

The idea, of course, is to make you have a more "proper" embochure. With a sax mouthpiece, you blow into it. A clarinet, you blow across.

(Not 100%, mind you, but you get the idea.)

In other words, if you're playing it like a tenor sax, that's not quite right.

(This is also the reason why I suck at straight soprano sax, but sound fairly decent on a fully-curved one.)

I'd stick with it for a little while. If that doesn't work out, you might look around for that additional neck.

Welcome to the forum!

[clarnibass]

Hi Jan

Not knowing how tall (or short) you are, I can only guess. I'm short for a guy, but taller than most women in my country (however when I was in Holland not that many women were much shorter than me :)).

I play the same model Buffet bass clarinet. With most normal chairs I put the peg so the clarinet is close to the lowest possible. Some chairs are impossible and then I use two chairs for example. Some chairs are just high enough so no problem. I never thought it was embarassing. For a higher chair you probably need to sit closer to its edge.

I play mostly standing though, and I tried to get a less angled neck from Buffet, which I heard exists. I tried Buffet directly and several of the biggest dealers in several countries. When one dealer finally came through, I decided to order the neck. When it arrived to the dealer, I recevied a message that they sent a regular neck identical to the original and not a different angle. Buffet is very hard to deal with. Unless I went to their factory and actually saw the less angled neck I am now pretty convinced they just don't make it anymore (supposedly can be special ordered but I tried to special order it, didn't work).

Selmer makes two types of necks. A friend was just here with his new Selmer (he uses the less angled version), and the Buffet neck worked with it ok (slightly wobbly though from the tenon being smaller). I think the bore of the Selmer is a little bigger but I didn't measure. We didn't check intonation at all (he only tried it for a few seconds). The Selmer neck tenon is too wide to fit the Buffet, but depending on how much wider it is, and the thickness of the metal, it might be possible to fix that. Or maybe it's possible to get a Buffet tenon, or make a new tenon. However until you try it it's impossible to know if the Selmer neck would work. The closest thing is to test a Buffet neck more seriously on a Selmer, but even if it works, it doesn't the opposite will too.

You can also have the mouthpiece half of the neck changed to a different angle. Several places offer this. This would mean to not have your bass clarinet neck for a while. Maybe you can check if just the outer half of the neck from another model (Selmer, older Buffet, etc.) will fit without messing up intonation. Some places (I know of at least one - expensive!) can make a new part for the neck with less angle, or even a completely new neck (very expensive!).

So my suggestion is simply to use a high enough chair.

I hope this helps.

By the way, you can notice that here in the bass clarinet sub forum there is an article I wrote about the Buffet bass clarinet neck register hole. I would be interested if you tried the specific excercise there and let me know if you find the problem I'm talking about in the A to E interval.

Gandlafe, isn't yours a Selmer Privilege? Or do you have both the Selmer and a Buffet Prestige? I don't remember if there is any difference in height though.

Nitai

[jan_pj]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm only about 5'0 tall, so a high stool does allow me to reach as high as the mouthpiece (with the peg as low as possible), however that makes it difficult for me to reach the bottom R.H. pinkie keys comfortably. A neck with less of an angle would reduce the overall height and save me from straining my neck and shoulder to reach those bottom keys.

I actually think this would help my embouchure as well as I definitely feel (and hear) a difference when I have to contort my neck and body out of its comfort zone to reach all the keys.

I'll keep persevering and let you know when I find my ideal solution - surely I'm not the only small person who loves big instruments. ;-)

Cheers,

Jan

[Gandalfe]

Oops. Yup, it's a Selmer. No wonder I couldn't figure out why the reach was insurmountable. Sorry for the noise.

[Carl H.]

Can you return it? If you can't play it there is not much point in keeping it.