Marigaux pics

tictactux

tictactux

Distinguished Member
Distinguished Member
...just in order to add some contents here, and besides, people love pictures...

ta-taaa, all nooks and crannies of a Marigaux RS Symphonie. It's a wonderful instrument with very dense wood and just little staining enough to let the wood shine through in the sun.

Here's a teaser:
MarigauxAdjScrews.jpg
 
pete said:
Mmmm. I'm not seeing anything. Well, invisible clarinets ARE kewl ....
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The link is under all nooks and crannies. And yes, invisible links ARE kewsl, however, I prefer them underlined.
SteveSklar said:
beautiful clarinet. Do you know how long Marigaux made that ?
do you know what size bore that has ?
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According to the WayBackMachine, they had them in their catalogs until the start of 2003. Unfortunately I wasn't able to download a catalog or some other deliverable for that model. :(
My calipers can't measure the bore, but I suspect it's a standard 14.6..14.7 bore.
I tried to contact Marigaux about a .pdf or something like that, but all I got was a terse answer saying they stopped the production of clarinets. As if I didn't know...
 
Gandalfe said:
Albert keying and all
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Nope, not Albert. Standard 17/6 Boehm, but with C/Eb rollers to compensate for the lack of an LH Eb lever.
 
Ah, as explained on the site you pointed to:

"This clarinet sports a number of unusual ergonomic features such as the roller keys on the right hand pinky keys' stack, an asymmetric register key, comfortable trill keys and a neatly designed "landing zone" for the left hand pinky. Personally, I profit most from the register key, followed by the rollers. And besides, for someone tired of beaten paths, this is just the instrument."
 
tictactux said:
pete said:
Mmmm. I'm not seeing anything. Well, invisible clarinets ARE kewl ....
Click to expand...
The link is under all nooks and crannies. And yes, invisible links ARE kewsl, however, I prefer them underlined.
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So do I, actually. We're transitioning and hopefully we can have that.

FWIW, I was getting "Server not available" errors when clicking the link. Works, now.

I agree: beautiful clarinet. I like the oboe-ish bell: that kinda screams "Marigaux", right there.

As you may or may not know, I used to run saxpics.com. I had an extensive section on the SML saxophones -- so much so, SML wrote on their website something to the effect of, "If you need information on our saxophones, please contact Pete. We know nothing!"

Seriously: SML, the company, either never really had records on a lot of stuff or destroyed all the records. I'd think that the only information on Marigaux clarinets you could get would be from someone that worked (past tense) there on the clarinet line -- but I doubt that would be a large number.

However, if you can send me the link you were trying to get to, I'll see if I can work some magic.
 
pete said:
FWIW, I was getting "Server not available" errors when clicking the link. Works, now.
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Occasionally one hits the "service hole" (when the boxes are being backed up or something like that).
Seriously: SML, the company, either never really had records on a lot of stuff or destroyed all the records. I'd think that the only information on Marigaux clarinets you could get would be from someone that worked (past tense) there on the clarinet line -- but I doubt that would be a large number.
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The little I have on my site is all the background Google would come up with (and which isn't already in one of the clarinet BBoards and mailing lists). A lot of manufacturers concentrate on present and future and occasionally dismiss the past (and burn the books, flyers and catalogs). Silly, IMO, especially when ten years would fit on a single DVD... <sigh>
I went the official route and contacted their sales dept via the web form on their "contact" page. The lady there just knew they stopped the production by the end of 2002 and wished me a nice day.
 
I particularly like the picture the Ben posted because it shows not only the sculpted keywork and rollers for the top spatula keys but also the dismissal of the cros foot for direct keycup arms. AND not only do the two arms have adjusters for the lower keycups but also the Left Hand alternate spatula keys have adjusters as well.
 
It is a beautiful instrument. It looks very much like my own S.M.L clarinet. It's really disappointing that I can't find any history on Strasser-Marigaux-Lemaire, because I love my SML. I wouldn't trade it for any Buffet, LeBlanc, etc. All I know is that the company has always been known for their oboes. They produced saxophones for a time, but Selmer's balanced action sax put SML out of the saxophone market. Lemaire was trained by Buffet Crampon, Strasser was a Swiss businessman, and I can't remember Marigaux's history. I wish I could find some record of my clarinet, but the only evidence to suggest that it was once documented is its serial number: 11068. Other than that, I have nothing. It is not a King model, as it isn't marked as such. If you were to remove the Strasser from above the name engraving on a Strasser model clarinet, you would have the engraving the bell of my instrument bears. I can't find anything else. It's sad, really...
 
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They produced saxophones for a time
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For only about ... 50 years. Check out my old website saxpics.com/sml

Selmer's balanced action sax put SML out of the saxophone market.
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Considering the BA was introduced in 1936 and SML was founded in 1935 and continued producing saxophones until appx. 1981, I'd say that the BA wasn't that instrumental (puns, as always, are intended) in getting SML out of the sax business :).

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TTT's clarinet will be featured in my upcoming calendars. Look for it!
 
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