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The Leblanc professional is as smooth as the proverbial baby's from top to toe. The darkest most velvety sound I have ever heard and no difficult notes anywhere! Fantastic! Three so far.
#641 was made about 1947, an early one before some design changes were made, I think mainly to reduce production costs. Consequently it has what I think is a better right hand key configuration and the keywork is unplated solid nickel silver which of course does not show wear and polishes with a golden sheen. The C# tonehole is at the side, by #1520 (which I have) it was moved on top. The bell is engraved, the only one I have seen on this model. The neck receiver is the short version where the neck has to have a slot for the speaker hole which is on the reciever.
The upper section had a crack pinned and sealed long ago and is now firm and stable. As usual most of the original gold plated springs are still perfect. It plays easily and evenly through the range with a beautiful tone. I had earmarked it for myself but another came along which I had to make a couple of keys for, so better I keep that one.
The case is one of the very neat original style which is so small it has to be shaped to fit over the bell.
Leblanc in bits
I can rarely resist buying a Noblet as they are so reliably good. Easy to work on they can be put into top condition even when thay have suffered greatly. All the keywork is robust and solidly fixed without any delicate long rods or fragile built up key stacks. Even tonality around the break and they sound top notch! Always in tune and difficult to separate from the pro. version above. Recognised and respected by every player and repairer worldwide.
Noblet
Some early Noblet basses they were made with very sensible rotating trill keys and left hand pinkie keys. Same principle as the standard left hand pinkie F/C as opposed to the long lever of the E/B above it. Much more positive and repeatable pad closing. They soon reverted to the ubiquitous long levers though, I suppose because of cost. I have one Noblet with only the trill keys rotating and one with both trill keys and LH pinkie keys rotating.
A Jean Cartier, one of the many lesser known instruments probably made by a good well known company as a 'filler' line. Well made with comfortable keywork it's a neat horn with the extra LH pinkie spatula for G#/D#. I've added a floor peg and a couple of setup adjusters and modified the neck to be tunable. Plays well in tune and sounds good.Cartier
The Selmer has fulfilled my expectations. It's cleaned up nicely and I have re-inforced an old crack repair with a couple of epoxy bonded carbon fibre bands. With a link from RH3 to the speaker mechanism it crosses the break very well using the Bb tonehole as speaker for mid staff B, C, D. Makes a lot of sense when the top speaker hole is right up on the neck. I shall have to see about knocking the floorboard nails back in now I have it sorted.
Selmer
Alexandre bass. Same as Evette and Pendel-Mueller, with speaker on neck. This time it has a neck! Has extra LH key for long
G#/D#. Sounds good. Ready to go. A little freer than the Noblet in the altissimo but suffers a tiny bit around Bb3, B3 and C4 in consequence. Alexandre and Noblet comparedAlexandre
Probably my last(?) Normandy (Vito 7166) bass as it is my tenth (alto or bass) and they are all alike, which is the idea I
suppose!. This one was working and in good order but I have repadded and recorked it because of all the pads and corks that I have seen that looked fine - and fell out! Proper American case; doubles as a garage for your Pontiac. Having done it I was surprised that the pads weren't the same as my records say I used in the Vito 7166's. Normandy.Vito 7166Vito.
Some of the other basses I have refurbished;
Kohlert. Big easy sound. Slightly smaller mouthpiece fitting. Very thin necks which often are bent and cracked.
Pedlar. One of the plastic ones with a big sound. Rotating trill keys.
Penzel-Mueller. As always, a good horn from P-M, the 'Artist' model.
