h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*chipper, like adult characters on little-kid's television*
No, what's happening to your Bb?

I was playing principle clarinet with a symphony orchestra a week ago, and - along with all of the other players - left my pair of clarinets in the practice hall we were using, on the premise that it was "safe and locked". When I got back there in the morning, there was a two-inch crack in my Bb, running from the throat 'A' key up through the Buffet logo towards the top tenon joint.

Too bad... I know someone else whose clarinet just cracked... He thinks he didn't swab it out properly and then left it in the car or something (stupid!) and it got too cold...

Yeah, that's really terrible..

*nods*... I love my clarinets to bits. I was distraut when I found my Bb cracked. .. I've sent them both off to the repairers. *worries about them*

What've you been up to recently?

*got offline* (In case you didn't notice... seeing as you beat your little race with Poet, I figured I might as well... )

Not much lately. Here on h2g2, I've got about 3 entries that are ready to go into PR, except for something that someone else needs to do (I need a links). So that's rather annoying. *grin*

IRL, I don't do anything at all... I just sorta sit around and do what people tell me. ("Work!" " Okay!")

ah. ... I was proud of winning that.

Actually, I had an unfair advantage, I'd already posted a fair bit more than her. But still.

awww.

ooh.. what's the work?

Would this allow you to figure out who I am? --No comment, I think.

aww.

Sorry. *makes note not to ask about irl shee again*

*grin* S'okay.

Why, if I might ask, do you wish to keep such a distance between rl you and your presence here, though?

Hrm... It's like... I'm two different people. But I'm not, really... I can just say things here that I wouldn't say to people IRL, and things to people IRL that I wouldn't say here... And I don't particularly fancy mixing the worlds, because they can both be sort of like "breaks" for each other.

I've got a trust issue going on... I trust you, but there is absolutely no guarantee that you are going to be the only one to read this. And it is the lurkers that I don't particularly want to know about *IRL* me... I mean, like getting a handle on my life, my work... everything. It's paranoia.

Hey... I just wrote a synthetic reed entry (I got the reed! ) Wanna look at it? A727878.... It needs more info still, but most of it is there.

I see. *nods*... That's fair enough. I used to have a barrier between the two myself. But I do so many things that it began to become easier and easier (if you knew what you were doing) to trace a line between the two, and now (if you have an ounce of common sense), you can get pretty much any information you like about me. It gives a tremendous sense of liberation.

It's quite nice, because once I move house and change my name, there'll be a huge ring of misinformation about me and I'll have true anonymity.

but for the meantime, if you are ever interested in the real me (or some aspects of it), http://www.njan.co.uk/njan is my website. Just in case you were, don't feel a pressing need to go there.

*goes to look*

What's the reed like?

It isn't quite like cane, but it is better than I expected it would be after everything that people have been telling me and the general opinion that I've felt... It's just different. It's almost like it's partially blownout already, or at least that it isn't quite as good as a cane reed... It's fuzzy in the throat tones especially. But even though it is fuzzy there, it isn't hard to play in any of the registers like a cane reed would be... If cane is bad, its usually bad all the way through, you know? So it is different... And I won't be playing it on my Bb, which is usually what I use... But for the bits that I have to play on Eb, it won't matter that much because a) the instrument isn't that good anyway, and b) no one really knows what an Eb should sound like... Leastways, the audience doesn't know. So if it is a bit sharper (more cutting), then there is no problem.

It's certainly odd to be playing a clear reed that doesn't need to be wetted though... Like the whole reed world was turned upside down!

*grins*

not too bad, then. I may get myself one at some point and experiment. (When I'm rich and famous, I'll buy myself many many nice clarinets and expensive mouthpieces and ligatures. For the moment, I'll have to stick with one set of expensive clarinets, mouthpieces, and ligatures. )

Ah.. the last Eb clarinet I played on was like that anyway.. it was tremendously scary.. I fingered a note, and my ears expected to hear a note in a normal clarinet register, and I didn't hear anything.. at this point, my ears turned upwards to hear a terrible squeaky noise. .. it really confused me.

clear? the reed's clear? wow! .. get a crystal mouthpiece and an R13 elite clarinet, you'll have the most eye catching clarinet ever. (Have you seen the R13 elite? It has polycarbonate rings between joints, which are black, and - I think - black keywork. Black, black, black. ) The only synthetic reeds I've seen were black.

Naw, the reed is mostly clear with some black tinting... I think that if I had gotten a hard reed, it would be more goldish... I don't know, that is just going off of websites.

A crystal mouthpiece... Did I tell you what happened to my crystal mouthpiece? I put it away because I wasn't using it, and then when I went back to it a while back, it was broken! So I had to throw it out. No way to fix it...

What about a red clarinet (not rosewood, just colored red)? I saw someone with a saxophone that was red and black--very weird, but interesting. You could have a clarinet (black) with red keys and a funnily colored synthetic reed... Oh, this is getting better and better!

Oh, I like chalumeau register Eb... that's fun. Everything below C sounds funny. When it gets up too high, then it's just ugly (and of course that is where they write the music, because that is the whole point of the Eb instead of Bb/A *groan*)....

Ooh.. I see...

having derided synthetic reeds quite so, I went to the Legere website, and the sound samples they have to offer are quite impressive. Admittedly, they're only 128kbps MP3 files, but - fuzziness aside - the synthetic reeds do sound quite realistic. Having said that, I still intend to stick by my Vandoren V12s, although I may experiment at some time in the future.

awww! .. they do shatter awfully effectively, Crystal mouthpieces. How did you find it, when it played? I have, I have to confess, not ever properly tried an accoustic mouthpiece.

hmm.. *thinks*.. You mean like the red in the Vandoren marbled mouthpieces? *has a rosewood clarinet, and loves the colour of it*

There's a lovely rosewood clarinet in the Bate Collection which has been cut at such an angle to the grain that it looks like flames climbing up the bell.

heheheh.

You get a great feeling of power playing up that high, though!

Well, the mouthpiece was really old... I mean, really old. It came with the clarinet, out of the attic... I got the clarinet repadded/corked/etc, but since there was a mouthpiece already with it when I began, I didn't ever recork the crystal mouthpiece... When I got to the level that I needed a new mouthpiece, I forgot entirely about the crystal one and got a neat resin thingy... So it was sitting there in the back of my closet (grin) with just a metal covering around the end of it and no cork... It must have fallen on the ground then, because half of the tip was gone. sigh. I should have played it without the cork, or even better should have recorked it and *then* played it... But what did I know? (Yeah I know I was stupid.. All the other people playing clarinet I saw/had seen had black mouthpieces, so clear never occured to me... ) Anyway.

Oh yes, V12s for everyone but me.

*has very little contact with Vandoren products--very ecclectic, I am*

I should find a rosewood clarinet somewhere and play it... Something else that I want to do before I die. That, and get a decent Eb clarinet, learn oboe, and ... heh heh.

awww .. you can use string and tape and all sorts of things, if you need to. *grins* (I've even seen rizla papers used)

.. V12s are lovely. What sort of reeds do you use normally, then?

You can borrow mine, if you're careful with her (once I get her recorked and repadded, that is...)

Oh, the problem with using yours wouldn't be if I was careful or not; it would be getting it across the ocean in one piece (or rather, four... )

Yes, or oboes who need new reeds using paper...


I've got Mitchell Lurie Premiums... I've had Vandorens now for my alto and the Eb sopranino... Didn't like either of them. The alto ones were just terrible... (sorry) and the Eb ones were okay, but all of them chipped, a *lot*, very quickly. And I *never* chip reeds anymore. So... I haven't had that good of luck with Vandoren. Suppose I should try them on Bb at some point, though...