Selmer 1930's Brevete A

Thanks to Peggy K in DE for giving me the opportunity to review this interesting vintage clarinet.

The original owner was probably a male. He was not averse to taking a grinder to two keys to make them shaped to the right length for his left pinkie finger. Only a technically proficient player would do something like that. He probably wanted the exact same position as on his Bb. And only a guy would do such a thing. And he reduced the length of the original barrel, and roughed up the barrel ring in the process. This artist was not a careful craftsman, and he probably did all his own work on this clarinet.

This came to me with a Geo H. Tieck mouthpiece. I assume that was a pro mouthpiece in the day, but exactly when?

This bears the stamp on the bell:

Baxter-Northrup Co.

Los Angeles

Picture gallery link: https://goo.gl/photos/MNnATf3iG8pDjuXn9

Serial #8019

Barrel: 67.7mm But this original barrel seems to have been shortened a bit from the top.

Bore LH joint top: 14.67mm

Bore LH joint at bottom: 14.9mm

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 a 66.2mm Noblet barrel, I pulled 0mm at the barrel, and 1.5 mm at the center tenon..

Intonation summary: This is not a wide bore Selmer, and this plays with quite good (modern) intermediate intonation. This would have been professional intonation back in the day.

Key work quality: Very nice. This has the cool but pesky extra key for left hand forked fingerings for Eb/Bb. They are a bit sharper than the regular side key fingering (which I used in the intonation test). Those notes are nice and clear. I prefer the way the 1 + 1 fingering sounds on this horn compared to the 1 +3 fingering.

This clarinet is most appropriate for: Very good community orchestra players, like Peggy.

Condition issues noted: None.