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At last I have plucked up courage to invest in a Leblanc paperclip. Quite a decent one in that it has no damage and all its bits! With the extra convenience of the 'paperclip' style it goes down to low C (concert Eb = 39Hz!!) so the floorboards are going to suffer again. For those who don't know the design it is an all metal tube folded just like a paperclip so that the neccessary 85"/2.16m ends up in a handleable package just 36"/0.92m overall. The contralto version is pitched in Eb and the contra-bass in Bb. It will have the full treatment as usual.
The keywork came apart easily which means it's straight and not corroded. As it appears to be the sand blasted silver plated finish I haven't touched it with power tools but nearly all of the nasty marks have come off with hand polishing. See Cleaning. Contra being worked on. That's how it will stay except that I shall wax it with 'Renaissance' conservation wax from www.Picreator.co.uk as I rebuild it. Hopefully this will keep it shiny for a few years. Reminiscent of a 'Mac' truck exhaust so I shall call it 'Mabel' and reserve 'Mac' for the contra-bass I might have one day. Interesting that the pads are fixed with a washer and nut on a central post soldered in the cup, just like the usual Leblanc F# key or the Buescher 'snap-ins'. See Pads.
It's remarkable how these old instruments can be so far out of adjustment. One can understand how damage can put parts out of kilter, but I am convinced that lots of them have been used for a long long time in almost impossible condition. Lots of times there are parts which cannot have fitted properly from new and countless examples of incompetant maintenance, the simplest and most frequent being cork bumpers fitted where they would hold pads off the tonehole. Clear evidence of attention by someone who did not understand how it worked.
I have finished the bulk of the refurbishement now. Like doing a double-barrelled bass; thank heavens for digital cameras! As usual the bulk of the original Leblanc gold plated springs were perfectly good to re-use.(Leblanc 'pro' clarinets used gold plated springs from the 1920's 'til at least the 1970's and very few rusted very much except where some clot of a designer put them hard against the wooden body to trap all the crud.) Having cleaned all the old oil out, (yes there was still a bit left in places), it seemed a good chance to change to 'clean' lubricant, namely high tenacity silicone oil aimed at long life, heavy duty chains. New premium quality leather pads have been used, fitted by the nuts and washers as the pad cups are dead flat giving all the support needed without metal inserts in the pads themselves. Anyway the only metal re-inforced pads I could get were too thick to seat in the shallowish cups. After levelling the hole seats there was a fighting chance of getting good seals, but relying on properly aligned keys, not pads floating on glue.
The muliplicity of links meant that setting up was interesting to say the least. See New adjusters. I have fitted screw adjusters in the critical places to ease alignment and maintenance but already I can tell that this instrument will be less trouble than lots of ordinary basses as it does not have to be struggled together and apart with consequent rod bending, and there is no alignment problem across the bridge or to the bell key.
It is a lump to swing about but far less likely to trip anyone up than a straight one. It sits conveniently on its floor peg to play, and as long as you can get the massive mouthpiece actually into your mouth it rumbles on the merest breath. I must admit that the altissimo has defeated me so far but the clarinet register is easy with the low speaker hole being opened by RH3 for notes below E. The long rod needed for this is better supported than any I have seen on an alto or bass because it doesn't have to bridge the centre joint. The keywork is very light considering how many bits waggle for some of the low keys but it must be said that the extra low D, low C# and low C are strange to unfamiliar fingers like mine. Absolutely normal to those used to low C basses though.
Having got it playing easily the intonation seems nice and even to me. By using an over soft reed it is quite easy to make the lowest notes passable imitations of a machine gun rather than a musical tone as the reed slaps the mouthpiece. It is only 39 slaps per second after all! I am tempted to find a bass version but perhaps I will just add a drainpipe to this one to see how it sounds.
No small attraction is the way the pull through I made from half an old tea-towel snakes its way down and up(!) the bore as I feed the lead weight around 360°+. Drivers sideFinished
It is a lump to swing about but far less likely to trip anyone up than a straight one. It sits conveniently on its floor peg to play, and as long as you can get the massive mouthpiece actually into your mouth it rumbles on the merest breath. I must admit that the altissimo has defeated me so far but the clarinet register is easy with the low speaker hole being opened by RH3 for notes below E. The long rod needed for this is better supported than any I have seen on an alto or bass because it doesn't have to bridge the centre joint. The keywork is very light considering how many bits waggle for some of the low keys but it must be said that the extra low D, low C# and low C are strange to unfamiliar fingers like mine. Absolutely normal to those used to low C basses though.