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Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 16:52:34 -0800
From: Grant Green
Subject: [CB] Sarrusophone in concertThe next San Jose Wind Symphony concert (Saturday, February 16, 2002) will include a contrabass sarrusophone :-) We're playing a variety of pieces ("A Musical World Tour" - see the website for the full program). The piece "Yiddish Dances" has no contrabass clarinet part, but does call for contrabassoon: this is where I'm filling in on sarrusophone. Ran it in rehearsal on Tuesday, and the conductor thought it sounded fine. Even the bassoonists liked it ;-) No real solos, but a few fairly
exposed parts...Enjoy!
Grant
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Grant Green
Sarrusophones, contrabass reeds, &
other brobdignagian acoustic exotica http://www.contrabass.com
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---------------------------------------------------------Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 19:57:13 EST
From: PaulC135
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]<<My personal big news is that JJ Babbitt (maker of otto link, meyer, and
other fine mouthpieces) got ahold of the measurements an original Buffet
contrabass sax mouthpiece, and are making a duplicate for me- they sounded
as if they're willing to make more, if others are interested. (If so, let
me know at jay@jayeaston.com , and I'll pass it on to them.) It will
hopefully be an improvement>>I believe those measurements came from me and my Buffet contra mouthpiece through the request of a Mr. Verdi. My measurements were somewhat crude though, and I have offered the actual mouthpiece to the Babbitt company so they can take more exact measurements. Of equal interest were the measurments of the actual contra reed that fits the mouthpiece. It was one of three that belonged to Sigurd Rascher that was custom made for him some years ago. He gave it to me as a present for publishing the Cowell "Hynmn and Fuguing Tune #18 (soprano and contrabass saxes) which I later recorded. I, too would like another mouthpiece, but I am more concerned about finding reeds of the appropriate size.
Paul Cohen
---------------------------------------------------------Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 18:00:02 -0800
From: Grant Green
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]>I, too would like another mouthpiece, but I am more concerned about
>finding reeds of the appropriate size.
>
>Paul CohenJust out of curiosity, what *are* the dimensions? I wonder if Bari
or Fibracell would make a synthetic contra reed of the necessary
width (I'm assuming cane that size is hard to find)?Grant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grant Green
Sarrusophones, contrabass reeds, &
other brobdignagian acoustic exotica http://www.contrabass.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---------------------------------------------------------From: "Merlin Williams"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 22:06:35 -0500You might even contact the guys at Legere and see if they'd do a short run
of Contrabass reeds...I'm using one of their #4 bari reeds on an old
Buescher bari m/p on my Conn bass sax.Visit Merlin's Mouthpiece
Jupiter Saxophone Artist/Clinician and member of the the Sax Ring.---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 22:30:05 -0800
From: Craig Durham
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Grant Green wrote:
> Just out of curiosity, what *are* the dimensions? I wonder if Bari or
> Fibracell would make a synthetic contra reed of the necessary width
> (I'm assuming cane that size is hard to find)?
>
> GrantI would love a synthetic contra reed. I would certify that I can hear a
cane reed degrade during one (!) playing session.Alas, Fibracell (at least as of my last contact with them a few months back)
expressed no interest in making contra reeds. Perhaps Bari is interested
in having more customers.Question: is the contra-alto clarinet the most reed-finicky (mouthpiece-
and ligature- also) low woodwind?Craig
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Patrick.Scully"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 22:26:16 -0800> Just out of curiosity, what *are* the dimensions? I wonder if Bari
> or Fibracell would make a synthetic contra reed of the necessary
> width (I'm assuming cane that size is hard to find)?
>
> GrantCome to think of it, bass and contrabass reed instruments might well be the
logical "core" market for synthetic reeds! Yet, this market is ignored by
the synthetic reed manufacturers, probably based upon projections of unit
sales rather than more relevant profitability analyses. If that's the case,
I'd like my favorite synthetic reed manufacturer, Fibracell, to get their
greenshades out (and their Excel spreadsheets up), and plug THESE numbers
in:
- Typical retail price for a Vandoren bass saxophone/contrabass clarinet reed: $5.00 to $10.00 (qty 5).
- Typical retail price for a Vandoren alto saxophone reed: $1.25 (qty 10).
- Typical retail price for a Fibracell synthetic alto saxophone reed $12.50 (qty 1). Manufacturing cost unknown -- assume $5.00.
- Assume manufacturing cost for a Fibracell bass saxophone/contrabass clarinet reed $10.00.
- Alto saxophone players are willing to pay 10x the cane price for a Fibracell reed.
- Bass saxophone/contrabass clarinet players are willing to pay 5x the cane price for a Fibracell reed.
- Unit Price/manufactuing margin for the new bass saxophone Fibracell reed is $37.50/$27.50.
- Unit Price/manufacturing margin for the alto saxophone Fibracell reed is $12.50/$7.50.
Obviously, the figures here are for illustration purposes only. But still,
they're not unreasonable. According to this analysis, the profitability of
the bass saxophone reed should be much greater than the profitablility of
the alto saxophone reed -- approximately 4 times more profit per unit.
Fibracell would do well to study why Ford Motor Company is retaining Aston
Martin and dumping the Mercury Villager.Patrick
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From: Clarinetmama
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 09:19:13 EST
Subject: [CB] reeds
I will undoubtedly make everyone in the group angry with me here, but I am
going to play devil's advocate.I agree with all of you that finding reeds is frustrating, but look at it
from a manufacturer's point of view. What kind of "tooling" up is required
to make synthetic reeds in a size never before produced? And we are talking
about items where calibrations are measured in milimeters. There is no margin
for error. The actual cost of the fibracell is negligable. It is the prep
time involved. For most manufacturers the cost of goods is not in the
materials. My husband and I own a small manufacturing company which works
primarily in metal and I can tell you it is not the steel that is the costly
item. It is paying to heat the place, worker's pay, insurance etc.that are
passed along to the customer. I think you get the picture. A 25 dollar
item purchased by a scant few contra players isn't going to keep the doors
open. Factor into it the small amount of reeds actually sold and they are
going to be losing money.Don't get me wrong, I sympathize as a fellow musician. But as a business
woman I can see the other side of the coin. Pardon the pun!!!Jean
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "John Kilpatrick"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 15:19:42 -0000
> LeBlanc had a booth with a few paperclip contra-alto clarinets, one of which
> had some sort of black enamel/lacquer coating on the body. It didn't look
> like wood, really, but it was a different look.The Leblanc France web page below shows the 340 with the black colour. I has
always wondered whether it was lacquer, or maybe elephant hide. I haven't
seen a black one apart from the picture, but I think the black rather spoils
the appearance. It would make the sunglasses referred to in the second
page-ref redundant.
Do they all have this black colour now, or is it an option?
John Kilpatrick
http://www.gleblanc.com/instrumentpages/LeblancFrance/leblanchtml/340.html
http://hem.passagen.se/eriahl/ctrbass.htm---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Patrick.Scully"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 09:16:49 -0800I saw somewhere, perhaps in a Leblanc newsletter, that the finish on the
Model 340 contrabass clarinet is black chromium. My guess is that the
finish is electrodeposited (plated).Many people don't realize that standard "reflective" chromium plating
actually is not very reflective at all, and absorbs as much light as some
black paints do. Touch a chromium plated automobile bumper on a hot summer
day...Patrick
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