G. Rudolf Uebel

pete

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
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I've been neglecting other woodwinds for a bit too long, so I'll give some attention to the clarinet.

I was looking through some interesting flute stuff and came across Uebel's aluminum flute (here's an example). I did a bit further research and found that they also made a bass clarinet in the same form. Pics and commentary. It's in German ....

While the material is interesting, I think the bell looks extremely kewl and very much like the Saxo-Clar or, if you prefer, an Alpine horn. I did a bit more Googling and found some other pics and info:

* http://clariboles-et-cie.blogspot.com/2010/01/clarinette-basse-metal-de-r-uebel.html (in French)
* http://www.feinwerkstatt.net/instrumente/bassklarinette-g-rudolf-uebel (in German). This one's for sale, too.

If someone buys it, take some pics and send 'em to me.
 
That's too bad. Unless the person's a member here, of course :).

I like the fact that these horns do have a distinctive look. I wonder how well they play: a lot of the flutes and piccolos seem to be talked-up fairly well and they're not exactly cheap (well, cheap for a super-pro instrument, I suppose).
 
Having once been stunned by the difference a silver head joint makes...

...I wonder what difference a solid aluminum body might make on a horn. Aluminum bells don't "ring" well at all. Unless there is no addition to a horn through the resonance of the body material, it seems that an aluminum horn would be "dead".
 
For the flute, there's mention that the headjoint is silver plated. For the bass clarinet, the neck and bell are different color, so I'd think that it's possible that they are silver-plated, as well.

From experience, I can say that the Pan-American metal clarinet I had had a very sweet tone. However, the metal used was not aluminum. I don't think so, at least ....
 
I actually read some of the stuff in those above links. They made the basses in conjunction/consultation with Oskar Oehler, so you can find basses in both Boehm and Oehler systems. Pretty kewl. The odd thing, though, is I haven't found any Bb soprano clarinets.

I've started a gallery here.

============

In researching the aluminum horns, I came across this. Low C bass with a bell that looks like one you'd find on a soprano clarinet. You've also got a really interesting looking neck with what looks like a Bb soprano clarinet barrel in the middle of it. (Attached pics, but there are more on the link.)

It's for sale. No price listed. I think this one would be an, "If you have to ask, it's probably a lot."
 
If Oehler was involved...

...then they clearly are pre-World War II, as Oehler pre-dated that august event by a good number of years.

Fabrication of a bass clarinet out of a light metal like aluminum would make sense from a practicality point of view. Fewer long pieces of the rare African hardwoods needed to make the body, plus the whole thing would probably be lighter. However, I'd want to test one extensively before I bought it.

(But, why stop there? Magnesium bodies would be lighter still, and once you got around the combustibility issues, there's still lithium and sodium...)
 
Silver plate versus solid sterling silver

I'm not a flute player by any stretch of anyone's imagination (but I can choke out the flute line for The Hustle, so I should get some credit here), but I have played both silver plated flutes (i.e., mine) and a silver plated flute with a solid silver headjoint (i.e., mine with a joint at the local music retailer in the 1990's). I was floored with the difference between the two.

Not satisfied with the results against my headjoint alone, I also tried it with two flutes in stock at the retailer. Same profound difference - with the stock silver plated headjoints, dead and unresponsive; with the silver one, light airy and resonate.

I don't really see the need for one (as I seldom have occasion to take the silver stick of respiratory exhaustion out of the case), so I haven't bought one. But, if my life involved a lot of flute playing, I would acquire a solid silver headjoint toute suite (with the double pun doubly intended). It was just that much better.
 
I believe the use of aluminium for instruments stopped pretty quickly because of corrosion issues.

My wife had a similar experience upgrading to solid silver headjointed flute. However you could also argue that there's a lot more time spent on them, even more so when people are paying for gold, and this could make the difference.

But, apart from stirring I'm staying out of this.
 
SOTSDO said:
...then they clearly are pre-World War II, as Oehler pre-dated that august event by a good number of years.
Click to expand...
I think I read that the collaboration began in 1933. The fabrication of the aluminum instruments appears to be 1960ish until Rudolf Uebel's death.
 
SOTSDO said:
(But, why stop there? Magnesium bodies would be lighter still, and once you got around the combustibility issues, there's still lithium and sodium...)
Click to expand...
Well, as long as the sodium didn't get wet. The lithium might make it difficult to play fast passages.

RE: Headjoints, I've not come across one from Uebel for the aluminum-bodied flutes that was solid silver. Silver plate and nickel plate. I'd assume it's possible and probable that there are solid-silver ones out there.

I'm also not a flute player. Interestingly, the article I wrote on my blog regarding the Claude Laurent flutes was my top draw for a couple months. Anyhow, I have heard that a good headjoint can make a significant difference in tone. I've got that article floating around here someplace that says that the actual total weight of the flute -- just the body, that is -- can make a difference in tone. Again, I'm not a flute player. Can't make a sound out of one.
 
SOTSDO said:
I'm not a flute player by any stretch of anyone's imagination (but I can choke out the flute line for The Hustle, so I should get some credit here), but I have played both silver plated flutes (i.e., mine) and a silver plated flute with a solid silver headjoint (i.e., mine with a joint at the local music retailer in the 1990's). I was floored with the difference between the two.

Not satisfied with the results against my headjoint alone, I also tried it with two flutes in stock at the retailer. Same profound difference - with the stock silver plated headjoints, dead and unresponsive; with the silver one, light airy and resonate.

I don't really see the need for one (as I seldom have occasion to take the silver stick of respiratory exhaustion out of the case), so I haven't bought one. But, if my life involved a lot of flute playing, I would acquire a solid silver headjoint toute suite (with the double pun doubly intended). It was just that much better.
Click to expand...

Don't want to rain too hard on your parade, but it has been shown numerous times under controlled conditions that the metal of the headjoint does not and cannot make a perceptible difference in the sound. I can post links to studies if you want. Any differences would have to be due to the geometry of the headjoint, and small--even microscopic--difference can have a significant effect in that department. I personally have two Yamaha student flutes--a 211 with plated headjoint and a 311 with silver head, and they are indistinguishable. I also have two handmade silver flutes, and those silver headjoints are VERY different.
 
My parade remains dry, thank you very much...

Whatever the reason, the headjoint that accompanied my flute as it was shipped remains an exhaustive proposition to play, but that silver headjoint, whatever the reason(s) may have been for its responsive behavior, was like magic in my hands. I've always regretted not buying it (it was heavily discounted, as the H & H chain was in the midst of its dissolution process at the time), but ships that pass in the night and all of that. I think that they wanted all of $150 for it.

I seldom have reason to pull out the flute, and I intend to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. I've got two good flute players who can cover the parts, and my lungs just aren't up to the demand.

But, I can still play The Hustle, and I nailed the flute lines in the Clarinet book for 1776 (a set of potatoes (whole notes) "tap notes" as part of the bell tones at the very end of the show.
 
No question that heads are different, never mind the material. Flute only takes a lot of air until you find a good embouchure and develop control.
 
Pretty unique, and a Boehm instrument to boot - not the norm from a German maker.

However, the location would give me pause. I've seen great horns from Italy and other "remote" countries, and I've been told that you buy them on eBay at your own risk, guarantees offered by eBay aside.

Still, you'd be guaranteed to have the only such horn of that type in a clarinet choir...
 
Putting some pictures here for posterity. What a unique Rudolf G. UEBEL Bb clarinet made of ALUMINIUM.

Rudolf G UEBEL Bb clarinet made of ALUMINIUM3.jpgRudolf G UEBEL Bb clarinet made of ALUMINIUM4.jpgRudolf G UEBEL Bb clarinet made of ALUMINIUM2.jpgRudolf G UEBEL Bb clarinet made of ALUMINIUM.jpg
 
One would like to hear it for oneself. I see that the discoverer was looking for an aluminum flute originally. But, one person's great might be another's meh.

In my industrial experience, aluminum is anything but resonant. In southern IL, we had three industrial facilities that dealt with primary metals. And, the sounf tyhsat each place's products produced was very different.

Every one was different. For example, the secondary copper smelter that I used to have to spend weeks at a time at produced wonderful tones when the huge copper logs (cast from all of the reclaimed copy that they processed) rolled down from the extruder, they made sounds like huge, resonant church bells. The thick walled copper pipe that was the final product sounded like the ultimate bass wind chime when it did the same thing over at the pipe extruder.

The magnesium place was about half as good. Clunky logs, and tubing that was dull as hell. (Thinner tubing, but they weren't set up as a sound test.)

The aluminum smelter (secondary again; all primary plants were the responsibility of MSHA, not OSHA) produced logs that made a metallic sound, but that was about all you could say about it. Full of random overtones, not at all musical.

(We also had a secondary lead smelter. A lead ingot literally sounded like a huge chunk of dirt hitting a concrete floor...)

The most impressive display of metallic sound that we ever encountered was at a towboat repair shop over on the Mississippi. They fixed dinged up "wheels" (propellers) made of bronze, and after the repair sections were brazed into place, the shop folks would grind all three blades to true things up and balance the prop. It was a long, tedious process and it was LOUD!

The presence of that prop blade under that rapidly rotating grinder would make a musical sound that would have been fantastic had it not been so loud. We're talking 112 dBa, where the scale is logarithmic, and 90 is the max allowed without engineering controls and the like. Huge, huge sound. It was like being inside the bell tower at Notre Dame, but unlike a bell, it never stopped ringing as long as the grinding was going on.

They had tried all sorts of fixes, and were having trouble finding hearing protection that would do the job. I cut through all of that by putting a musical trick to work - a fifty pound lead ingot hung on each blade by a rubberized wire cage. Bingo - no beautiful ringing sound, with the levels brought down to below 80.
 
SOTSDO said:
One would like to hear it for oneself. I see that the discoverer was looking for an aluminum flute originally. But, one person's great might be another's meh.

In my industrial experience, aluminum is anything but resonant. In southern IL, we had three industrial facilities that dealt with primary metals. And, the sounf tyhsat each place's products produced was very different.

Every one was different. For example, the secondary copper smelter that I used to have to spend weeks at a time at produced wonderful tones when the huge copper logs (cast from all of the reclaimed copy that they processed) rolled down from the extruder, they made sounds like huge, resonant church bells. The thick walled copper pipe that was the final product sounded like the ultimate bass wind chime when it did the same thing over at the pipe extruder.

The magnesium place was about half as good. Clunky logs, and tubing that was dull as hell. (Thinner tubing, but they weren't set up as a sound test.)

The aluminum smelter (secondary again; all primary plants were the responsibility of MSHA, not OSHA) produced logs that made a metallic sound, but that was about all you could say about it. Full of random overtones, not at all musical.

(We also had a secondary lead smelter. A lead ingot literally sounded like a huge chunk of dirt hitting a concrete floor...)

The most impressive display of metallic sound that we ever encountered was at a towboat repair shop over on the Mississippi. They fixed dinged up "wheels" (propellers) made of bronze, and after the repair sections were brazed into place, the shop folks would grind all three blades to true things up and balance the prop. It was a long, tedious process and it was LOUD!

The presence of that prop blade under that rapidly rotating grinder would make a musical sound that would have been fantastic had it not been so loud. We're talking 112 dBa, where the scale is logarithmic, and 90 is the max allowed without engineering controls and the like. Huge, huge sound. It was like being inside the bell tower at Notre Dame, but unlike a bell, it never stopped ringing as long as the grinding was going on.

They had tried all sorts of fixes, and were having trouble finding hearing protection that would do the job. I cut through all of that by putting a musical trick to work - a fifty pound lead ingot hung on each blade by a rubberized wire cage. Bingo - no beautiful ringing sound, with the levels brought down to below 80.
Click to expand...

Well I have a Uebel aluminum flute, and it plays very nicely. The interesting thing is that a metal that "rings", as in bell metal, doesn't make a bit of difference for a woodwind instrument. The air column pulses inside the bore, pushing equally around the cross section of the bore. Ever try to hit a bell from all sides at once? It won't ring at all, because ringing is an elliptical deformation, and that doesn't happen with an air column. The Uebel flute is truly a work of art--extremely well made. The sound is unique, but not because of the aluminum: the head joint is much longer than that of a regular flute, and it is tapered all the way to the end. That unique shape gives it a bright and concentrated sound--very good for playing in a band, since it tends to cut through more than a normal flute. The response is excellent, and it has both a well controlled third octave and a powerful low octave.
 
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