Moennig Bros Artist Model
This clarinet may have been made around 1930. It has the large size key cups for the left hand joint trill keys. They take 10mm pads. This is like some Penzel-Mueller instruments of that time. I was hoping that this might be a good instrument because of the Moennig name. I was very disappointed. This was likely made in Germany.
Serial #5444
Barrel: now 63mm. Would have been 65.5 or 66 originally.
Bore LH joint top: varies based on which way one measures. One way 14.6mm, the other way 15.3mm!
Bore LH joint at bottom: 14mm
The upper part of the left-hand joint was very cracked. That is why the bore is messed up in the upper part. This was probably 14.7mm at the beginning of the left-hand joint originally.
Intonation results taken when playing loud and not lipping. See how to interpret these results on the Model Comparison Page.
For this test, I pulled 1mm mm at the barrel, and 0mm mm at the center tenon. However this barrel must have been shortened at the top. The mouthpiece that came with this had a shortened tenon. The top tenon socket is too short for my mouthpiece and this makes my mouthpiece stick out (as if pulled out) 2.5mm from the top of barrel.
Intonation summary: What a waste of time! The acoustics of this clarinet were ruined because of cracks and perhaps other changes to the bore. But I suspect this never played really well in tune. Evidence of that is that another owner had to shorten the barrel.
Key work quality: The underneath of the wide part of the keys are hollowed out like spoons. The key work is rather soft.
This clarinet is most appropriate for: This is probably best made into a lamp.
Condition issues noted: Terrible cracks were fixed in the barrel and the upper part of the left-hand joint.