Metal (aka silver) Clarinets

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Not a problem.

I actually have seen another Thermocouple sold, once, for $10K. It may very well be that it's rare + excellent name + actually plays really decently. If there are only 344 of them, you've got the "rare" part down!

I should write something about actually collecting horns, one day. I'm more interested in good playing instruments, tho, not investment opportunities.
 
I have a Selmer Paris metal clarinet with the microtuner barrel; it's had new pads put on and other adjustments made. However, I find it very hard blowing compared to just about anything else I've tried (e.g. R13 and even plastic clarinets).

With its Selmer HS* mouthpiece and reeds from 1.5 to 3, it's equally hard blowing and squeaks quite a bit. I switched to a Hite Premier and a #2 reed which has helped a little, but that same mouthpiece on other clarinets like the R13 plays just fine.

I used to have a similar problem with a Cannonball saxophone and their #7 mouthpiece; I switched to a Yamaha 4C mouthpiece which is more open while keeping the same 2.5 reed and it was much better. So, I think I need to do something similar with my metal clarinet, but don't know where to go from the Hite Premier.
 
Warning, this from a sax player now neophyte clarinet player.

I never got the metal mouthpiece that came with mine to work well for me. I hope to have a mouthpiece tech look at it sometime as there is no obvious fault. I ended up trying a number of mouthpieces before I decided my Ralph Morgan piece worked the best seconded by the J.D. Hite. And that said, I still prefer the modern keyworks found on my Buffet R-13 Festival.
 
Adagio said:
I have a Selmer Paris metal clarinet with the microtuner barrel; it's had new pads put on and other adjustments made. However, I find it very hard blowing compared to just about anything else I've tried (e.g. R13 and even plastic clarinets).

With its Selmer HS* mouthpiece and reeds from 1.5 to 3, it's equally hard blowing and squeaks quite a bit. I switched to a Hite Premier and a #2 reed which has helped a little, but that same mouthpiece on other clarinets like the R13 plays just fine.

I used to have a similar problem with a Cannonball saxophone and their #7 mouthpiece; I switched to a Yamaha 4C mouthpiece which is more open while keeping the same 2.5 reed and it was much better. So, I think I need to do something similar with my metal clarinet, but don't know where to go from the Hite Premier.
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Welcome to the forum!

I agree with Gandalfe: you're probably going to have to go down to a store and try out a lot of mouthpieces. I lucked out with my Selmer C85/120: I had been playing a Vandoren B45 and a friend of mine was playing the C85. I liked his more than mine and he liked mine more than his. Easy trade.

@ CONNICAL, seems to me that with a name like yours, you must purchase the shiny.

The "armored" clarinet -- that'd be "double walled", whereas most commonly found metal clarinets are "skeleton" or "single walled" -- are uncommon. However, if you look at the prices on the page linked in the ad, they're all over the place. This one also had WAY too much work done to it.
 
pete said:
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@ CONNICAL, seems to me that with a name like yours, you must purchase the shiny.

The "armored" clarinet -- that'd be "double walled", whereas most commonly found metal clarinets are "skeleton" or "single walled" -- are uncommon. However, if you look at the prices on the page linked in the ad, they're all over the place. This one also had WAY too much work done to it.
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I agree. Sort of a Frankenette creation. What does the typical Conn
armored go far ? I havn't seen enough of them to get a good grasp on their fair market value. I'd like to get one to mess around with, but since I do so much of that, my first rule is to buy it right so I can get out from under it later with just a little loss, or even a small profit . =)

SOTSDO said:
...as well as some "work" that would have better been left undone...
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Yeah he sure took some liberties with that one. Gluing it together ?
And only $1200. for his creative problem solving. I wonder if he used Super Glue ! At least it wasn't duct tape ! =)
 
First of all, it seems he also has a double-walled Eb clarinet for sale, too. Albert system.

Well, the seller says that the 424N is similar to the 444N and he's selling a 444N for under $350 ....

BTB, the Conn Loyalist says that the "armored" models were 624 and 1534. Doing some minor Googling suggests that they may be right. Whichita Band Instruments has one on their website (see the link; search for "624N") and a picture of the catalog. Much nicer looking and it was $1025 -- and WBI is overpriced, usually. So I'd call "$1025" the high end.

The 624N is in a few museums. That's gotta count for something.

I want this one. I don't care if it plays well. It's pretty.
 
Wow ! What a honey ! The pic showing the chipped tenon, the wood looks like Oak? I had no idea that they made such nice Pan Ams. I always figured they would dress up just the Conn's. I see it's got one of the cheapo plastic Pan Am mpc's. I've had a couple of white Pan Am alto mpc's . They never impressed me much. Have you played one of the clarinet versions ?

And thanks for the armored info. At those prices, I'll hope to stumble across a bargain somewhere. Just another
for the list. (Long list) =)
 
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I want it for $15 so I can hang it on my wall.

One story I heard about these is that they were made from airplane propellers from WW II planes.
 
Props ! If that's so, my guess is it's a really hard wood like ASH maybe. Conn was known to buy out stuff on the cheap. Like Vito's old tooling. War surplus would of been dirt cheap back then. It wouldn't surprise me if it was true.

Where did you dig that trivia up ?
 
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By the time of World War II, the general use of wooden aircraft propellors was a thing of the past. Hamilton Standard (the big designer of propellors at that point) made them in metal (big honking metal forgings), and the rest of the world had followed suit.

The props from World War I were made from laminated wood, but the cross sections of their blades would have left little margin for error if you tried to turn a clarinet out of it. (The "cross-wise" grain in the propellor would also cause problems, running the wood (and the laminations) at an angle through any clarinet made from them - the fact that this is not seen is strong evidence that propellors were not used.) Also, with the stresses involved and the damage that old props managed to absorb, the wood would not be a good raw material for sockets and tone hole.

I imagine that Conn laid up (or caused to have laid up) the raw materials themselves (wood was not as controlled during World War II rationing as were other materials), and then turned the stuff down on the same lathes used with solid woods. As with any laminated wood product, the areas to worry about are the lamination boundaries, and the single Conn propellor wood horn that I've seen had some suspicious looking spots in the bore (which would have been drilled out, rather than turned).

But, they sure look spectacular...
 
Better listen to him, Flounder, he's in pre-med.

As to where I heard that, probably one of the Clarinet Symposium mags in the 1980's.
 
Another quality Selmer metal clarinet on eBay

Just now, there is a "up end" Selmer metal clarinet with the fluted barrel that is for sale on eBay. It's not a full Boehm, but it does have the Bb/Eb fork mechanism. Get it while you can...
 
That'd be this one for $1249.

I'd call that overly expensive and it needs a lot of work.

Edit: there's a double-walled Penzel-Mueller up, too. Almost $1900.
 
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