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New boy

Hello music friends,
I have been looking in on the forum and have greatly enjoyed the banter and seriously helpful comments from many members, so I joined and will enjoy contributing as best I can. I played clarinet in high school back in the 60s and a little on an off since. The last year or so I have had serious clarinet withdrawal since I am now semi retired and have more time.
Although I was 1st chair through most of high school and 3rd in the dist. honor band in LA, I was mostly self taught. From a poor family with a junk clarinet it was a struggle. But, I got good at repairing horns. Anyway, I never understood various mouthpieces, ligs., and qualities of instruments. So, now I want to buy an instrument and feel poorly equiped to choose.
I tried an E11 this week, a Bliss and a used Selmer Centertone. The Bliss was very nice. Runs, articulation good, great range in volume, nice tone, but I had some problems.
I was using an old Yamaha, cheap plastic mp I've had for decades instead of the Bliss Cadenza included mp and it didn't fit tightly. I main concerns were: 1) when I crossed the bridge on runs I found it hard to hit B without and excess of effort on the key. (felt like my nieces Chinese horn). But fast runs up an down scale either in lower or upper register and E or B was fine. When I borrowed the R13 using the Buffet standard mp, I was finding the B easy to get and when I failed to get the register key or some other fingering mistake, it seemed to pump out a nice little grace note rather than feel plugged up.2 ) it also seemed to squeak. That also wasn't a problem with the R13. Any ideas for testing a horn?:-(
 
The problem with testing horns is that as the customer you expect the isntrument to be properly set up.

This is not the case alot of the time.

If a clarinet is properly set up you shouldn't necessarily squeak, or have issues here or there. Granted, keywork layout etc may have some influences on some squeaks, etc. but for the most part they should play fairly fluidly.

As a repair person myself I was dismayed a couple years ago when I went to my local music store to check out a brand new R13. It was dismal. I'm sure a 15 yr old taken-case of Vito would have played easier.

So the word out there is to try several of each brand/model. If you are at a shop that really takes care of setups then each specimen may have certain qualities you slightly perfer over the other. But in this case you are hoping to find a good setup.

Many times you will find issues with the low B, or C#, Eb, or C pads. bridge keys sometimes are not properly setup or leaks elsewhere.

It can be really frustrating to test instruments. All we can advise is to try a couple models of each brand and find one that is playing really well.

welcome to the board Shasta.
 
... another thing is that if you go to your local Guitar Center or something simular, you should expect that any woodwind that they're selling is probably not set up as well as that 1965 Guild electric.

> I tried an E11 this week, a Bliss and a used Selmer Centertone.
I had to Google to figure out what a "Bliss" was. It's the Backun-designed composite horn from Leblanc. The review I read says that it's a good competitor to the E11, even though the E11 is wooden.

The Bliss is $844 and the E11 is $1055, new, from wwbw.com. Personally, if I was just comparing the two, I'd go for Kessler Music's E11 Custom with the Backun barrel for $875 or one of his warrantied used Blisses for $600. Just an opinion :).

> Selmer Centertone
"Centered Tone". As I owned one, I can tell you that they're nice older pro horns. I think that the vent in the joint is fussy and caused some squeaking problems for me.

> Ideas for testing a horn
Yes, I've got some.

Oh. I was supposed to list them. Sorry.

While I think it's nice to test a horn with the shiny mouthpiece/ligature that comes with the horn, I think that's secondary to testing with your "standard" setup: YOUR mouthpiece, YOUR ligature, YOUR reeds.

In your case, it sounds like you want to replace your entire kit and that's fine, but you also mention that it's been 50 years since you've regularly played and you have a "low quality" mouthpiece. While I think it's possible that the horn(s) you tried were improperly set-up, it might be a combination of set-up, your unfamiliarity with the mouthpiece(s) and that you're a little out-of-practice. (Hey, no offense intended: I'm waaaay out of practice, myself, and I'd have someone else playtest a horn for me, as well, if I wanted a new horn.)

As a suggestion, you might be better served by buying a student Yamaha clarinet and a decent mouthpiece. Student horns are a LOT better than they were in 1960 and used horns can be gotten cheap, not only the Kessler example, but check out http://www.woodwindforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2547
 
Thanks guys for the help!
My only valid basis for trying instruments was my access to a near perfect R13 two years ago. I did have some time to work on the lip and get back to my ancient Rubank Advanced practices. With the Buffet standard mp and my normal 2.5 reeds, I was only limited by my past skill. The instrument never messed up as far as I could tell. I felt like I could play better than in the 60s. Based on what I'm hearing, my plan is to buy a good medium mp, since the store I went to didn't seem to want the new mp used. Then try instruments. I also agree that the store can be the problem. I would love to buy local, but the boondocks of very Northern CA is very very limited in intermediate/pro. Any one know of a good store in Sacramento or the SF Bay ares where they have a good selection and some knowledge of Clarinets? I have seen the Kessler site and am impressed but can't get my head around how to test a variety of horns over the web, and can't afford to buy several for trial.
Thank you again for the fine ideas.
 
I recall that there were some stores in your area but don't know the exact store titles. The best way to do it is to visit a store with a large selection. However, many stores have gone under or turned their business model around to the student demographic . . . few seem to have pro-level horns in stock. Testing by mail/UPS is not a good way to do it, although if you have the funds, then you possibly could take a chance on name-brand stuff and just buy it.

First thing would be to do the normal research in your area and call the stores to assess what they have available to play. OR, make a day trip or an overnighter to stores that do have a good selection. A little get-away could be fun in itself.

Kessler's is terrific. There are stores in SoCal that also have good selections. I've seen Kessler's offerings in the $1K range and while I didn't buy (I already have two Buffet pro-level Bb sop clarinets plus many others), I walked away confident in knowing that if for some reason I had to replace my current clarinets, the ones I played at Kessler's would serve me well. DAVE
 
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