Vol. 2, No. 51

23 June 1997

EDITOR'S NOTE: Scott says that Listserv is now installed, and waiting to be configured. I'll be testing it out, and (hopefully) shortly moving the subscription list over. The new and improved list will also have a shorter address.

Robert Groover said:

> Who's doing your sarrusophone restoration? I'm particularly interested in
> the bocal, as the bocal on my Eb contra is a bit rough. The end of the
> bocal is actually ragged, and for some reason, the whole thing is curved to
> the right (i.e., the bocal doesn't lie flat). I don't know if the previous
> owner played it out of the side of his mouth or what.

My Eb is only a few numbers away from Grant's, and my bocal is curved the same way, so it's not accidental - but I don't understand it.

I also don't understand why there's a boss between the two strap attachment rings, BTW.

I too am very curious to read more about sarrusophone overhauls!

Robert Groover groover@netcom.com (PGP key on request)
Member ECS, AVS, ACM, OSA,
Sen.Mem.IEEE, Reg'd Patent Atty
"All men by nature desire knowledge."

Michael said:

My sarrusophone is being restored by Dan Oberloh who owns a repair and restoration shop in Seattle. He apprenticed as a silversmith and as a plater before going to instrument repair school. His special interest is in brass instruments, particularly tubas. He made me a new bocal using the old one as a guide, but made it somewhat shorter as I was about 20 cents flat. He slightly changed the end diameter so that my contra reeds would fit as well.

The original bocal was out of round and had a large seam split. As for the rest of the instrument, He totally took it down removing all posts and tone holes, rerolled some parts, and made a new U -tube from scratch where the water key is located. I watched him for the better part of a day and it was facinating - the techniques are very similar to intrument fabrication in the Renaissance. Took about 3 days to completely fabricate the part but it is now perfect. He bought 2 sets of pads which are smooth leather I believe; the pads on the instrument were a combination of bass clarinet pads and some sax pads with resonators. Right now it is at a large plating firm in the Midwest which only does instruments. It will be satin silver finish with bright finish on the engraving, a gold bell interior and gold key work! Dan also fabricated a new holder for the left hand crutch and a new receiver for the bocal as well. Essentially the sarrusophone will be like new or better and yet mostly original. Sorry to go on so long but as you can see, I'm quite excited about it! The instrument should be totally finished by the middle of July. Anyway, as far as your bocal is concerned if it is repairable, he can do it and if it is too far gone, he can make a new one.

Let me know if this interests you and I can give you his number and address. He'll probably faint if you have him work on your horn - he didn't think anyone else but me was crazy enough to want a sarrusophone let alone have work done on it. By the way I'm still very interested in getting another sarrusophone, especially a contra. What about the place you got your three? have you sold your second contra yet?

I guess I should be making paragraph indents - this is getting to hard to read! I'd love to try a bass sordune reed versus a contra reed. I assume that Keith Lorraine makes them? By the way, I'm actually the author of the first sarrusophone article in the Double Reed journal and I made up the fingering chart for the contra as well. I was in vet school at the time.

Since then a few other articles have been published in the journal. Have you checked out the online fingering chart for the sarrusophone and contrabassoon yet? Very cool. More later, Michel

Grant Green:

At 12:17 PM 6/21/97 -0400, you wrote:

>My sarrusophone is being restored by Dan Oberloh who owns a repair and
>restoration shop in Seattle. He apprenticed as a silversmith and as a plater
>before going to instrument repair school. His special interest is in brass
>instruments, particularly tubas. He made me a new bocal using the old one as
>a guide, but made it somewhat shorter as I was about 20 cents flat. He
>slightly changed the end diameter so that my contra reeds would fit as well.
> The original bocal was out of round and had a large seam split. As for the
>rest of the instrument, He totally took it down removing all posts and tone
>holes, rerolled some parts, and made a new U-tube from scratch where the
>water key is located. I watched him for the better part of a day and it was
>facinating - the techniques are very similar to intrument fabrication in the
>Renaissance. Took about 3 days to completely fabricate the part but it is
>now perfect. He bought 2 sets of pads which are smooth leather I believe;
>the pads on the instrument were a combination of bass clarinet pads and some
>sax pads with resonators. Right now it is at a large plating firm in the
>Midwest which only does instruments. It will be satin silver finish with
>bright finish on the engraving, a gold bell interior and gold key work! Dan
>also fabricated a new holder for the left hand crutch and a new receiver for
>the bocal as well. Essentially the sarrusophone will be like new or better
>and yet mostly original. Sorry to go on so long but as you can see, I'm
>quite excited about it! The instrument should be totally finished by the
>middle of July. Anyway, as far as your bocal is concerned if it is
>repairable, he can do it and if it is too far gone, he can make a new one.
> Let me know if this interests you and I can give you his number and address.
> He'll probably faint if you have him work on your horn - he didn't think
>anyone else but me was crazy enough to want a sarrusophone let alone have
>work done on it. By the way I'm still very interested in getting another
>sarrusophone, especially a contra. What about the place you got your three?
> have you sold your second contra yet?

Yes, sounds very interesting! My bocal is still useable, just rough. Given how sensitive bassoons are to bocal condition, I wound how this one affects the sound and playability of the horn.

The other contra was traded to Paul Cohen, for the contrabass ad anche (see http://www.contrabass.com/pages/anche.html ).

> I guess I should be making paragraph indents - this is getting to hard
>to read! I'd love to try a bass sordune reed versus a contra reed. I assume
>that Keith Lorraine makes them? By the way, I'm actually the author of the
>first sarrusophone article in the Double Reed journal and I made up the
>fingering chart for the contra as well. I was in vet school at the time.

> Since then a few other articles have been published in the journal. Have you
>checked out the online fingering chart for the sarrusophone and contrabassoon
>yet? Very cool. More later, Michel

Yes, I think Keith can make a reed for anything. However, I've been buying these from the Early Music Shop (Bradford UK, http://www.e-m-s.com ), mainly because they're ready-made, and they work. KL always wants to have the horn, so that he can match the reeds to the horn perfectly. This, of course, is excellent service, but requires one to go without the horn for a while.

The online fingering charts are great: I keep meaning to put in links to them on the sarrusophone pages. Maybe next time I update....

Thanks,

Grant

I see, while preparing the digest, that I forgot to answer a question. Unfortunately, the source of my sarrusophones is now sold out. I obtained mine from the estate of a musician in the Los Angeles area, who had SIX (three Eb contras, a bass, a baritone, and an alto), along with quite a few other instruments. I ended up with the bass and two of the Eb contras. The third contra was believed to be a Conn, but it had been painted dark, to pass as a contrabassoon.

Grant

And now for the latest from the usenet...

On 13 Jun 1997 05:05:55 GMT, in alt.music.makers.woodwind tradewindz@aol.com (Tradewindz) wrote:

>FOR SALE

>Harmony Clarinets

>Leblanc Professional Instrument
>Grenadilla wood
>in Very good condition
>All new pads & corks
>With case & mouthpiece

>Bundy Student model
>Resonite plastic
>All new pads & corks
>Case & mouthpiece

>ContraBass Clarinet BBb
>Vito Resonite plastic
>in XLNT condition
>All new pads & corks
>With case & mouthpiece
>For more info e-mail:Tradewindz@aol.com

Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 12:16:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: JolivetDVM@aol.com
To: contrabass-list@contrabass.com
Subject: SNL

I recall seeing a contrabass sarrusophone once on SNL. Was I dreaming?

Michel Jolivet

I think someone brought this up several weeks ago, Lenny Pickett playing contra on one of the old SNL episodes. Did anyone ever figure out which show it was (date or number?)

Grant

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