I have a nephew who start to play clarinet at the school band.

Quesrions, comments? Anything at all, the Guru is in. There was a blizzard in NY/NJ and had nary a problem with either instrument the whole time I was up there. When I left Atlanta it was 60 degrees outside and a slight breeze. You can find message boards filled with horror stories of professionals taking their Buffets on planes or to different climates and their instrument just NOT working. I've never met a Buffet that didn't go out of adjustment simply at the sight of a performer. ' Frankenhorn' isn't going to do anything for you. Yamahas are copies of the easiest to spot characteristics of Selmers and Leblancs and thrown together into one instrument, but that doesn't work. One should also note that I did not mention Buffet or Yamaha. Without a proper setup (for you) you won't have the privelege of being picky about what kind of horn you play. Your setup determines so much more than your horn. Notice that we did talk about Selmers and Leblancs, but we also talked alot about your setup. You can do just about the same work on Selmer, but I just like the feel of Leblancs better. Leblancs are hefty instruments, as I said before, and they provide a sturdier platform to produce the sort of tone that I enjoy on Bass Clarinet. Were it me, I'd never flinch in the face of a Leblanc. You could just as easily get a Selmer and enjoy them and stick with them. I got my first Leblanc (the '59 400 series) in '94 and I've stuck with them ever since. I keep two reed knives, sandpaper, emery paper, a reed clipper, reed rush and I adjust the reeds according to an adjustment chart.ДЇrom the beginning, the beginning of this Guru thing, around 1994, I've always said that the difference between Selmer and Leblanc is personal preference. Why? Because my hand position is everything. When you're standing you MUST have a strap on. When you're sitting use a peg and a strap. This means that I did all the hard work on what most people would call an 'inferior' mouthpiece. * I didn't start using a Selmer D until then end of my college career. Prior to that I played a Bonade Inverted. * I only acquired a fancy ligature at the end of my college career.

If you aren't doing that then you don't need harder reeds. * The point at which I had to go up a size in reed strength is when I started to play noticeably flat. * I won 42 auditions in 6 years and for 2/3 of that time I play a Yamaha 4C mouthpiece and a 2.5 Hemke Tenor Sax Reed. Your setup is vital to your success, but it does not have to be fancy. The size and shape of the bell, the placement of the Eb Pad (on or off the bell), the presence or lack of an extension all combine to produce the specific tonal profile of Eb on your instrument. Some instruments sound Low Eb differently than others. That depends on the instrument, brand, the placement of the keys, placement of the register mechanism, etc, etc, etc, etc. Some instruments sound Middle B and Middle C differently than others. Some things that individual instruments may tend to do: If the upper register is unresponsive it's because you aren't very good at playing in the upper register or you have a broken instrument. An instrument is stuffy when it is badly out of adjustment or you happen to be playing the wrong mouthpiece/reed combination for your embouchure and air flow level. Anyone who is complaining about this problem either has a badly broken instrument or an inability to play in the upper register consistently.

Now I must point out some things that neither of these horns are: The keys are plated multiple times and the wood is thicker, making the instrument quite heavy. I'm what you would call, a professional) and still pick it up and play it.

You could throw a Leblanc off a building(in theory, do not try this at home. The cupped plateau keys provide a slightly lower key level and produce a slightly slower key action than a Leblanc. The bore is slightly smaller than a Leblanc. These two titans tangled for many a year dominating the Bass Clarinet landscape while Buffet killed them with the R13 Soprano. So, I've got the polar opposites in the Bass Clarinet world in my studio. I play this instrument different than my others. After, backing a couple pads everything was fine and I began to do a little warm-up just to check the horn out. So, the other day I was getting my things ready for the beginning of the school year and I pulled out my plastic Bass to make sure everything was still in order.

New bundy bass clarinet