Henry Gunckel 7 ring

Thanks to Steve Asmus for giving me the opportunity to review this clarinet.

Intonation results taken when playing loud and not lipping. See how to interpret these results on the Model Comparison Page.

For this test I used my own 65.85mm barrel and pulled 2.2mm at the barrel, and .85mm at the center tenon.

Intonation summary: With the right barrel, this would be in the lower intermediate category today. The person who played with this clarinet using the shorter barrels was playing with a different mouthpiece, a soft reed, a loose embouchure, and probably was in a band where the brass were way sharp.

Key work quality: standard for the time. This clarinet has the 7th ring for the LH ring finger. This allows one to play Eb/Bb with the 1-3 forked fingering. The way this ring is integrated is different than some/most other makers. There is a long post that connects that ring to the C#/G# left pinkie key.

This clarinet is most appropriate for: a beginning player.

Condition issues noted: Some springs could be replaced. This clarinet seems finicky to work with. The ring finger tone hole was broken off long ago and replaced with a metal sleeve, which is actually the thumb tone hole sleeve from another clarinet. Even though I undercut this, it still is not playing in tune.