[Dixielandjazz] Clarinet tuning

Wed Jun 13 13:04:04 PDT 2007

Another help for developing good reeds is following Ben Armato's book, "Prefect A Reed & Beyond".

The butt end of a reed is a parabolic curve and most reeds are not "perfect"  Ben's "Reed Wizard" tool fixes out of shape reeds and
results in many reeds playing well that at first try did not work.

The tool can be used for any size reed from soprano to bass sax as well as clarinet.

If interested, you can look him up in the web.

Russ Guarino

"Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis" wrote:

> 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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