Welcome to my page outlining some of my clarinets in my collection.  Though not very vast it does outline my commitment to learning more about the nuances of various makes and models.  I keep the special or significantly different instrument rather than playing instruments of very similar qualities. I wish I had time to play all of them all the time.  But only a few get constant play due to playing in college, symphony and jazz bands.  Those happen to be my Selmer CT and Buffet R13s.

Buffet R13s - I own two early R13s.  A 51xxx and a 55xxx.  I love the tone of the early R13s.  These are the vintage that Chadash designed his custom clarinets from.  A nice dark tone and with a Moennig type tapered barrel a very nice ring to the tone, very balanced airflow resistance from upper to lower joint.  I have with one clarinet an original hand-cut Moennig tapered barrel, per the original owner.
My favorite mouthpieces include a Vandoren M13 (good to blend with an orchestra), M13Lyre for more dynamics, vintage OBrien with tone booster for great blending and excellent dynamics. I also have some original Buffet C Crown mpcs from 1969 and 1974 which work well with these.   All these mouthpieces also give excellent intonation stability.

Buffet Master Bore - 1950ish Full Boehm.  Full Boehms are very interesting to the clarinetist.  For instance, you can trill C#/G# with either your left pinky or your right 1st or 2nd finger.  And, say, you keep the C#/G# key open with your left pinky any time you hit a RH ring it will close it automatically (thus you can trill G# to F,E or D without lifting your LH pinky). 
With a Full Boehm one can also play all right hand spatula keys with the left pinky.  This may not seem like a big deal but on an occasion where I sprained my right pinky and was unable to use it, I simply used my left pinky for all keys.  Granted, a difficult job but I have practiced in the past for flexibility and complex transitions.  Of course, one of the big abilities of a full boehm is the ability of playing a mid Bb with all keys and not using the throat keys.  This gives a much more fuller tone though many directors prefer the regular throat keys tone. Additionallly, the C#/G# tonehole is placed in a more appropriate position than on the upper joint to the side.  being right where it should be, which happens to be where the tenon is.

My favorite mouthpieces is fairly limited.  I've only tweaked the instrument but due to the setup restrictions of the keywork it is mouthpiece picky.  Brilhart and M13 and Landelais.

Buffet A 1935 Enhanced Boehm- Here is my Enhanced Boehm A clarinet.  Articulated C#/G# for the LH pinky only.  Some enhance boehms have a C#/G# sliver key between the first two lower section ring keys. (see the Selmer CT or Buffet Full Boehm for examples).  My other A is a 1950s Buffet standard boehm.

The next couple of pictures (click to see them in full size) show the upper joint and barrel without keywork.  The 2nd pic shows both joints without keywork.  You can see the C#/G# tonehole in the lower joint - there was a repair there as someone put a screw into the wood and cracked it which was fixed.  Then 2 more pictures of all the sections.

Buffet 1918ish wraparound - These are interesting old Buffets.  The most significant factor being the wraparound "tea kettle" octave mechanism.  The Octave mechanism is tea kettle shaped and sticks above the wood body
My favorite mouthpiece is a vintage lower emblem Buffet, vintage lower old emblem Selmer Paris or a vintage Woodwind K9.  It seems to have the correct bore and design to make this model sing, of course the Buffet was designed for these models too.. 

1957 Selmer Centered Tone enhanced boehm - I bought this clarinet from a high end repair shop already overhauled.  It played but didn't sound right.  I had to make some very minute bridge corrections and fix a few extremely light leaks to make it sound full and robust.  The tone was somewhat thin earlier.  And now it plays absolutely beautifully. The tone that is reminiscent of what the CTs are known for. 
This particular model is an enhanced boehm, meaning it has extra keywork compared to a regular standard boehm clarinet.  You will notice in the top row, 4th picture that there are a couple oddities.  First and foremost there is a hole in the cork tenon.  This allows the C#/G# to be properly placed instead of the alternative location in standard boehms (to the backside).  The keywork for the C#/G# is actually on the lower joint.  You will also notice that the 3rd finger has a ring, and a little pad that is under the Eb sliver key.
On the lower Joint you can see all the additional keywork.  There's a sliver key between the first two rings that activates the C#/G# - yes you can use your RH to do C#/G#.  Also, if you keep the C#/G# open and press any of the LJ rings it will close it, while your LH pniky is still pressed down.  makes for trills in Carmen sound perfect without practice.
Notice:  The Buffet Full Boehm is the same except is also has an extra spatula key for the RH pinky which allows for a full sounding Bb instead of the thinner throat Bb.

My favorite mouthpiece does NOT include new Selmer Paris mouthpieces when these were made. The newer ones make this sound like a duck.  But use the older Ovals and before such as the lower crest emblem, vintage Woodwinds, vintage Obriens and this is a fantastic sounding clarinet.

1958 R series Selmer Centered Tone standard boehm

This Centered Tone is my other primary clarinet next to my R13s.  It has a very distinctive, deep and full ring to the tone.  Tapered factory barrel to a "Series 9" type upper joint bore not the cylindrical bore that the early CTs are known for.  I prefer the tapered bores for a better player feedback in relation to air flow in supporting dynamics.  It seem more consistent top to bottom rather than a systematic loss of air flow as one plays down the upper joint.  This is a very minute feeling but one that is important as one learns more about advanced playing feedback.
My favorite mouthpiece does NOT include new Selmer Paris mouthpieces when these were made. The newer ones make this sound like a duck.  But use the older Ovals and before such as the lower crest emblem, vintage Woodwinds, vintage Obriens and this is a fantastic sounding clarinet.

1930 Selmer - these are considered the best jazz clarinets available by many players.  The Selmer CT was made famous by Benny Goodman but it seems as though jazz players that aren't driven by name recognition seem to like the 1930s Selmers. My Selmer was bought for a song and a dance and has spent most of it's life with me on the shelf and used as spare parts at one time (just springs, screws, rods) but sooner or later I'll finish the refurbishment that I started over 5 years ago.  It's keywork plating has flaked and peeled off over the years so it's not very pretty.

Leblanc LL - my first professional clarinet,a Leblanc LL.  Though a favorite by many players I find the LL to be fairly limited in the ease of dynamics simply due to the medium bore in relation to a Selmer or even the tapered Buffets. Excellent keywork, excellent nickel finish, great quality all around including the reverse cone barrel.

Normandy 4 - I only mention this one because it is what got me started.  Purchased in 1978 from Mr Herbert Couf, president of WT Armstrong corporation and owner of Royal Music (retired in 1989) and importer of Couf saxophones (keilwerth).

Buffet 1915ish Albert with transitional keywork -

1800s (or early 1900s) Buffet HP Eb Albert clarinet

This is more or less a toy in refurbishment. At first I thought this was a waste of money even though it was really cheap to get off the bay. but it's cute, keywork is good and a nice little play toy.  I'm also going to experiment with HP instruments and try and make them a LP.  The pictures are pre-overhaul.  I don't even know if it plays .. but isn't it cute !!  I haven't even checked the serial number to determine the year it was made.

Wurlitzer Albert Bb -

Hugs & Co - Zurich - Albert A

Leblanc L7 - this was a wonderful playing instrument.  Very free blowing, a very nice ring to the tone. The problem I had this with instrument is that it really did not fit into my collection quite readily.  It required a change in playing characteristics a little bit more than normal.  It also didn't live up to the free blowing and lead awareness of my Selmer CT and didn't quite cover the flexibility of a Buffet RC or R13.  It was a keeper instrument for those of smaller collections or someone looking for a 1 clarinet does all, it just didn't fit well in my collection.  Excellent wood, excellent craftsmanship though this was the time in Leblanc history when they fiddled with their plating process and this keywork did suffer from plate pitting especially in contact with the skin/skin oil.  I had to sand and buff the rings to make it much smoother to the feel.  (I ended up selling this as it didn't really fit into my collection)

Please contact Steve for more information.

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