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Clarineo

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
Ever heard of these?

http://www.clarineo.co.uk

"The ideal stepping stone from recorder to wind instrument. The recorder is perhaps the single biggest selling musical instrument in the world. With the Clarineo young children can take their skill to a higher level and bridge the yawning gap between the recorder and band and orchestral instruments."

There are quite a few videos and sound clips on that website and on YouTube. IMO, most of the folks sound like they're playing clarinets with a mute. They also seem to have a bit of a hard time not to squeak.

Pretty, though. Groovekiller could probably use one of these to balance out his Vibratosax at his next gig ....
 
Yah. Lyons was the original name. The ones I could find quickly were all black. The Clarineos have multiple color options.
 
Has anybody played one yet?
Hows the pitch?
I'm thinking it might be fun to jam with the bluegrass folks as long as it's not to loud.
I found this at a site selling them
http://www.clarineo.co.uk/faq.asp
I am a professional clarinettist and, at the moment, play C clarinet parts found in orchestral music by transposing the music up a tone on my B-flat clarinet. I am considering buying a C clarinet. The Clarineo is much cheaper than C clarinets – but is it musically up to the job?
The late Ted Planas was the acoustic designer of the Clarineo. Most clarinet players from symphony orchestras entrusted their clarinets to him when they needed serious alterations such as retuning, or modifications to the internal bore or keywork. He was the acknowledged master of woodwind acoustics and mechanisms, in theory and in practice.
Ted based the acoustics of the Clarineo on an 1820 clarinet. It thus has a smaller internal bore than modern C clarinets (approximately equivalent to that of an E-flat clarinet).
The Clarineo is moulded in two tranverse halves, which are then ultrasonically welded to form the body. This production method lets undercutting of tones holes and flaring of the bore be moulded into the instrument. As you know, these features are vital for optimum tuning of the clarinet between the three registers. The consequence is that intonation and ease of speaking is at least as good, if not superior, to that of modern C clarinets costing four times as much. Since its sound is that of the clarinets of the late Classical and early Romantic eras there is a strong case for playing orchestral C clarinet parts on the Clarineo. Despite there being no duplicate keys you can still play smoothly and quickly by sliding the left little finger (pinky) across C#/F# and B/E; and the right little finger between C/F and Eb/Ab, a similar technique to the saxophone. However, rarely-met fast trills and tremolos between those pairs of notes are not possible. Incidentally, if you play an E-flat clarinet, your E-flat mouthpiece (or any make of E-flat clarinet mouthpiece) will fit the Clarineo.
 
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I've heard some of the YouTube videos. It sounds like some folks have difficulty controlling it. It doesn't have that bad a tone, though.

If I was considering buying a C clarinet, I'd probably try for a real clarinet. New student-quality ones aren't much ($250, IIRC) and, if I'm lucky on eBay, I might be able to get a pro-quality one for cheap.
 
I've got Lyons C clarinet lying around somewhere. I never play it. From memory, the good thing about it is that intonation is excellent. Far better than most C clarinets. However, the keys bend a lot when you play it which is a bit disconcerting and, you are right, it is kind of hard to control. It's like playing an instrument that is in need of a good set up; playable, but you have to work quite hard.

I suspect the rubber pads don't seal as well as they might. They are self leveling so there's nothing to adjust to improve the situation.

It is also possible that it's the mouthpiece that causes problems. I've only played it with the one that comes with it. It takes an eefer mouthpiece.

The pinky key setup is like Albert system, the sliver keys are absent and RH1 only gets a an Eb/Bb key. The rest of that stack is missing.
 
Urgh. Intonation with C clarinet...

Allow me to say this. Most C clarinet that I've played has had this intonation struggle. Some are worse than others.

Of the C instruments, the most common design would be the master plan that Thomas Ridenour used for the Noblet (widely copied by the CSOs). The C#4 and the A throat have this tug-of-war that has no happy result. Topmost trill key is unable to be as 'precise' as the Bb counterpart, and depending on how 'good' of a copy you get, the bell note might come and bite you. Some will be waiting for you to cross the break into Altissimo... and you would be left bruised, abused and exhausted from the fight.

The Amati and its subsequent offspring (such as the Forte' C) has transition woes going to Altissimo. Clarnibass sums up the issues pretty well.

Ergonomically speaking, the Noblet can only be described with a 'meh'. You will find your left ring finger landing semi-haphazardly. The design of Forte' and Amati is somewhat better, but still...

The only way that you will get a C instrument that's at the level of say R13 and so forth is to shell out the big bucks. RC Prestige in C is the most impressive that I've tried (dear god, stay away from the R13 C). The Patricola CL7 is said to be good, and Stephen Fox can make one of Delrin Acetyl or Grenadilla. All C instruments worth a lick have a hefty price tag. I still regret having missed out on the chance to purchase Ricardo Morale's Concerto C that Morrie Backun had tamed... that thing felt every bit as good as a Bb horn with class...
 
I just started teaching a 6 year old student with a clarineo. She came from Poland where they start kids in school with them in grade 1 - in Canada they are relatively unknown. It's great for kids because it's so light-weight and the plastic reed sits correctly on the reed due to guard rails, the finger holes are all the same size and fit tiny fingers. What I find challenging is getting such a young student accustomed to the air pressure required. It feels lighter than a recorder so they assume you don't need to blow hard. Also I noticed the plastic reed doesn't stay totally firm on the mouthpiece which may be causing her to squeak more. The first week I taught her we got a sound right away, this second week it was all squeaks! The ups and downs of teaching!
 
I was shocked at how nice the tone is from the first notes my student played. The plastic reeds help a bit for consistency.
 
Better linky: http://www.nuvo-instrumental.com/index.php?route=products/clarineo_specs. Click on the image on that page that says "Click for interactive version." It gives you clickable specs, including info about the ligature and reeds. Mr. Dibbs, above, already mentioned that the mouthpiece is similar to that of an Eb soprano clarinet.

I'd still just have a bit of a hard time recommending one. You can still find cheap plateau clarinets on eBay, like this $50 Normandy (or, if you want to go extreme high-end, this beautiful metal Pedler for a lot more, but it's probably lighter than most wooden horns). Considering I haven't had clarinet students for, oh, 20 years, it's not really a big issue for me :).

Now, if I was just a little more interested and/or had the time, I'd be interested in trying the flutes. I've mentioned many places that I absolutely suck on flute, so I'd welcome an "easier" horn to play and $150 isn't a bad price.
 
Does anyone here have experience of both the original Lyons 'C' clarinet and its newer incarnation, the Nuvo Clarineo?
If so - are there any significant differences to fingerings? I know some of the 'mechanics' have either been upgraded or changed, but how has this impacted on fingerings?
 

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My Google-Fu is strong.
It certainly is. The Clarineo fingering chart is easy to find - but I've NO idea where you found the one for the Lyons 'C'. That one has never popped up in any of my many searches. Many thanks. Your new appellation should surely be 'Google Guru'.
 
Archive.org is one of my favorite resources. Essentially, what I did was I found a link to the Lyons fingering chart, but the link was broken. Fired up archive.org and popped in the link. Success. Pictures only show up in Archive.org maybe 30% of the time, in my experience. PDFs are 50% or a bit better, so I got a little lucky :).
 
They have live recordings, books, movies and TV, and a bunch of other stuff. They even have a channel on Roku.
 
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