[Dixielandjazz] Clarinet tuning

Wed Jun 13 08:27:06 PDT 2007

Many vintage tenor players have their vintage favorites.  Every brand has 
it's musicians that swear by them.  I understand that some of the Martins 
and Kings were excellent horns.  I have never played much on either.  My 
experience has been on Conn, Selmer, and Yamaha.  Each has it's good points.

I play a Conn 10M half nude and it has a great sound.  The horn is medium 
dark in tonal quality and I have brightened it up some with tone boosters 
and metal mouthpiece.  The low register (Below D) is almost always out of 
adjustment.  It has never met a repair shop it didn't fall in love with.  I 
had all the keys swaged (expensive) and that has helped but it's still not 
100%.

Part of the range problem is the mouthpiece I use which is a wide open 
mouthpiece (Metal Wolf Tayne 8) and I use a fairly stiff reed which gives me 
a lot of power at the expense of the low end.  I suppose if I put a 2 reed 
on it the low notes would sound great but then my high end would wash out. 
I really need the power so moving to a more general purpose mouthpiece like 
the Meyer might not cut it.

A friend of mine had, I believe, a King tenor in excellent shape that his 
dad owned.  I played on it for awhile and it was an OK horn but the bell was 
very close to the keys and my fingers bumped the bell and I don't really 
raise my fingers that high.  It felt very strange also because of the 
spacing on the fingers.

I own a Yamaha Custom baritone and a Yamaha Custom Soprano.  I just don't 
think you can beat the Yamaha for key action and overall quality.  I think 
they also beat others on tone quality and ease of playing.  IMHO their 
mouthpieces shouldn't get past the trash can and they shouldn't even bother 
putting them in the pro horns.  That was true on both the Bari and Soprano. 
I have a friend that plays a Yamaha Alto and he likes it above others.

The Yamaha Custom Soprano and the (52?) standard horn sound different so 
should anyone want a soprano they should check both horns out.  The Yamaha's 
with a reasonably good player can avoid the duck like low register that most 
have where the low register and high register sound like they are coming 
from two different instruments.  The Yamaha Custom has an English Horn type 
of sound and is a little more legit sounding.  Using the straight or curved 
neck changes the sound some too.  I prefer the curved neck.

The bad part of the Yamaha Soprano is the G# pad.  If it ever starts 
sticking there is no way to get into it to run a cloth or dollar bill to un 
stick it.  It's very tight.

There are guys that swear by the Yangasawa (SP?) They do have one thing 
that's nice and they have a positive lifting G# key that actually raises the 
pad rather than letting a spring pop it up.

I owned for awhile a silver Buescher Tenor made in 1923 that I had 
completely restored.  I sold it last year to a list member.  It cost me 
about $900 for everything.  It's strong part (yes with the same mouthpiece) 
was a low register to kill for and with a hard rubber MP sounded just like 
the tenors on the old recordings.  It's drawback was a weak high register 
(above A) and weaker range above C.  For someone who wanted a dark sound 
with an excellent low register it's the horn for him.

Another thing is the reed.  Every reed brand has it's proponents and I have 
tried many.  My preference is the Rico Royal.  That reed has the most 
consistent playing quality with almost 100% useable reeds in a box.  Some 
highly rated reeds are pure junk.  The cheaper Ricos in the orange box 
aren't bad either.

For those reed players out there here's a tip.  When you get a new box of 
reeds take each one and put it on a hard surface and rub it with a spoon to 
burnish the cane fibers then with a very fine piece of sand paper make a few 
strokes on the sharp edges on the left and right side of the reed.  Your 
reeds will be much nicer to play on and less likely to cause chafing of your 
lip because of the sharp edges.  Another is to always soak your reed in 
water before playing, not your mouth.  Reeds soak up saliva which has 
digestive enzymes in it.  Saliva starts trying to digest the reed which 
eventually breaks it down.  Soaking in water fills up the pores of the cane 
and like a full tank can't get fuller so acts as a barrier to the saliva. 
It doesn't work 100% but your reeds will last a noticeable time longer.  I 
learned that playing Oboe.  A couple of sax playing friends of mine carry a 
reed knife and when they put the reed up they gently scrape the back side 
which removes any gunk that might try to build up and also keeps the reed 
flat.  I don't go to that extreme but these guys play a whole lot better 
than me so they may have something.  I've talked long enough about that but 
if you want to try frozen reeds sometime I will tell you or anyone how to do 
it off list.

As I said before, horns, mouthpieces and reeds are a lot like toothbrushes. 
They shouldn't be shared and are personal.  Good luck with finding that 
perfect combination for you
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Dustin" <postmaster at fountainsquareramblers.org>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 10:27 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Clarinet tuning

Larry and Jack, always wanted to try a Buescher and those testimonials may
get me closer.  I¹m a closet tenor player myself, inspired by Stan Getz¹s
bossa nova jazz which I¹ve loved since 1962, definitely MKOM.  Anyone who
has never had to try to play the slush pump well cannot appreciate how
wonderful it is to be able to blow, wiggle your fingers and produce
articulated...NOTES!  So sax is my therapy, although I can¹t read it.
(Hell, I can¹t read much bone either, truth be told.)  I have a circa 1937
Martin Handcraft tenor in perfect playing condition which really honks some
dark stuff.  But my pride and joy is my King Zephyr Special, from around
1941.  Just a beautiful tenor with wonderful tone and a great action. I play
it with a medium chamber Meyer 7 rubber mpc.  I also like an old red plastic
Runyon I stumbled across, which screams like one of those metal mpcs with
the name that eludes me at the moment. But with the Meyer and the right
reed, I can almost get some of that Stan Getz tone going on Girl From
Ipanema and Corcovado, et al.  It¹s fun. In my next life, God¹s promised to
send me back as a tenor player. She wouldn¹t curse me with the t-bone
twice....would She?

David Dustin
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