Not odd at all when you're female. It's a reality.
I hope you didn't misinterpret my post to suggest anything like that. I promise you it didn't. Sorry if you did.
Now if someone could tell me where to find the problem with MY stuffy B, I'd be more than happy to to a little experimentation in order to remedy the situation. The general concensis is that I'm wrong about the vent.
Who exactly decided that "general concensis"? People who have tried the Signature model? Hmm..... maybe it's something specific with your Signature. Unless someone tried your specific clarinet they can't really say.
Do you know what year your Signature was made in? Have you tried other Signatures? Anything made approx at the same time? Any from a different time? How was the problem on those? Did you try any other Selmers from about same time?
I want to know so I can compare with the current Signature, and if it doesn't have a problem, maybe I can get some information from the Selmer representatives if they were aware of a problem and if the register vent was changed.
How comfortable are you with removing and re-installing the register tube? If you can do this, maybe you can get a replacement tube, and do some experiements with it.
BTW do the Bb and/or the B sound any better/different if you completely remove the regsiter key?
I'm sure you know the register tube is a compromise no matter what it is like. One compromise that can happen sometimes is better response of upper clarion, for notes like A and B for example (also other nots) in exchange for a slightly worse throat Bb, and possibly tone of lower clarion, especially B. Sometimes the altisimo will also be a bit better when this is the compromise. Do you notice the upper clarion on your Signature is responding better (when starting the notes) than your instruments without this problem?
Of course some instruments have different overall compromises and sometimes these advantages are minimized by other methods.
Nitai