Selmer Centered Tone

Serial #P1510 Thanks to Gary Kern for letting me review this clarinet!

Barrel: Gary has a non-original Selmer LA9 barrel which is 67.1mm long. This was too long for me to test with. Instead I used a 64.1 Ridenour barrel.

Bore LH joint top: 15.0mm so this starts wide.

Bore LH joint at bottom: 14.6mm So how early did Selmer make a poly-cylindrical instrument?!

#Q3007 has a 15.2 bore at the top of the LH joint and 14.8mm at the bottom.

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 0 at the barrel and 0 in the center for this horn.

Intonation summary: Intermediate intonation. However information might be improved with a different mouthpiece. My mouthpiece is a large bore one. From a 2013 woodwind.org thread:

Small bore Selmer C85 Series mouthpieces are made for a new generation small bore clarinets like Recital, Signature, Omega Paris etc. These mouthpieces will play sharp in the throat tones on a Selmer CT. Any large bore mouthpiece is a better match for a Selmer "Centered Tone" than Selmer C85 Series mouthpiece.

The best match for a Selmer "Centered Tone" is the original Selmer "Oval" mouthpiece. By the way, these Selmer "Oval" mouthpieces from the 1950's are some of the best mouthpieces ever made by Selmer.

Vytas Krass

Custom clarinet mouthpiece maker

Professional clarinet technician

Former professional clarinet player

Key work quality: Nice classic Selmer key work. Good and sturdy. As sturdy as Buffet. Not as sturdy as Noblet. This has pin in hole left pinkie keys, which I frequently have said is a Buffet trait.

This clarinet is most appropriate for: This is a famous and sought after model of Selmer. It’s good, but would no longer be considered a professional instrument. Great for jazz players.

Phil's other CT reconditioning:

27Jan2014, #Q3007, for Carmen K. This instrument had a severely cracked bell and serious chipping on the lower RH joint tenon. It was previously banded in three places. All that is proof that it was well loved!

21Jul2014, #P5010, for Ron Rygelski. This clarinet was missing the RH F and Ab keys plus the post in between them. Some repairman must have needed them for another instrument and never got around to fixing this one. This clarinet seems to have been stored for maybe 60 years in a dirty workshop. I cobbled together some keys from an SML clarinet that could be bent to work. It is not pretty. At least he instrument has been resurrected.