Ralph Katz

Music Equipment Page

(last edited 05/12/2023)

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As a philosophical statement, I don't like to identify equipment, but do it hypocritically here anyway.  If you think you absolutely cannot play on anything but a particular setup (instrument/mouthpiece/reed), I would ask you to reconsider.  You can learn quite a bit, about tone production, intonation and general musicianship, by playing for 3 months on a different type of instrument, reed or mouthpiece.  Avoid dependence; develop finesse.

Bb and A Clarinets

I have Buffet R13 Bb and A instruments, but my backup Noblet A is really a fine instrument (it worked well in Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun when the R13 A broke a spring.) 

Ligature:

Oops - now playing on a Vandoren Optimum.  I used a Bonade inverted's for decades, but changed when the last one finally wore out.

My feeling is that the best mechanical coupling of the reed to the mouthpiece will give you the most flexibility.  IMHO harder reeds and softer ligatures, which lots of people use to attempt to "darken" their sound, just muffle things and limit control and expression. Try a softer reed and relax for darkness when needed - I have seen this surprise several clarinet DMA's. A softer reed will also give the flexibility to better control your clarinet intonation, which is not as precise as for all other woodwind instruments.  You can always put on that super-hard reed to overwhelm the rest of the orchestra and kill your chops.  These are just my opinions.

Reeds:

It would be unfair to say I have any sort of solution to the reed problem.  Like a lot of folks, I find myself switching brands and strengths for at least 1 box every year.  Finding something that works, the next year is different.  If I had a middle name, it might be "finicky".  I bought a Reed Wizard after talking with Ben Armato at a convention and my best bet now is to run an entire pack of Vandoren blue box reeds through the Reed Wizard and break them in together.

I got the Reed Wizard after talking with Ben Armato at an International Clarinet Association convention.  As an experiment, I ran a dud Fibrecell synthetic reed through the device, and then it was fine, lasting for 20 Klemaer wedding gigs.  Lately, I have used Vandoren blue box reeds and run them all through the Reed Wizard.    Clip the ones that are too soft; more aggressively re-Wizard the hard ones.  Put them all into a single reed case, and cycle through them for daily scale and articulation practice.  Most of them then become acceptable practice reeds.  I have 4 cases, clearly numbered, and I try to keep two cases, or 20 reeds, in-process at a time.  People who play 8 hours a day may want to keep a lot more cases going.

Mouthpiece: Well, I was having issues in 2013, with endurance, tone production, and articulation, so deigned pull out the cigar box of old mouthpieces, barrels, and ligatures.  The first couple sounded pretty sweet, but then I realized that my then-current piece sounded like hell.  Upon checking, oops, it was warped.  So, I got a $31 Clark Fobes Debut, which I liked a lot, but then upgraded to the Nova, the same thing in hard rubber.  Good control of intonation across volume levels.  The Nova is less bright for me than the Debut.  But, I then met Martin Fluch of Maxton (Austria) at the 2017 Midwest Conference in Chicago, and got one of his model WB 9,5 (Wien, Boehm, 9.5mm) mouthpieces and like it a lot.  Again, with a longer lay, it needs harder reeds and that was an issue.  So, for now (mid-2023) I am back to using the Nova.

Eb Clarinets

I also have Noblet and Buffet R13 Eb's.  I got the Noblet, but then a deal come up on the Buffet that was impossible to pass up.  I got a Vandoren M15 mouthpiece for the Noblet; the Buffet came with a Walter Grabner Eb mouthpiece.  Til Eulenspiegel has more edge on the Noblet, and is much sweeter on the Buffet.  Some of this is mouthpiece, some instrument.  

I loaned the Noblet eefer to the UM Life Sciences Orchestra to use for Schostakovich Symphony No. 5, and it sounded great (he is a strong player, and I could viscerally feel him wrangle the instrument into correct pitch.)  And, Larry Liberson of the Detroit Symphony says I am the only other person he knows (beside himself) that owns two Eb's.

C clarinet: Stephen Fox #02006 / Ridenour Lyrique 570 C

Fox Options: short barrel, center tuning ring, LH Eb/Ab, modified Stubbins register vent/throat Bb.

For Stephen Fox see: http://www.sfoxclarinets.com/

I just got the Ridenour in early 2023, intending it to be my go-to instrument for outdoor Klezmer gigs.  I proved it out last week during a rehearsal of Liszt: Les Preludes.

For more C clarinets: http://RalphKatz.pbworks.com/CClarinets

The Fox appears to me to tune more Buffet-like, and the Ridenour tunes more Leblanc-like.  I say this only because as a musician, it can be very advantageous to be able to do be successful on diverse hardware.  The four members of A2/C4 the Ann Arbor Clarinet Quartet have a wide variety of instrument/mouthpiece setups, but yet I would challenge anybody hearing a recording of us (Bb's that is) to identify who is playing any particular line.

Alto Clarinet

I got a Noblet franken-clarinet (different serial numbers on upper and lower joints) from a dealer who bought it from a school.  Stephen Fox overhauled and modified it.  Both right-figures no longer close plateaus - they now cover holes with chimney, which fixed timbre and pitch issues.  He also added a low D and converted the instrument for use with a standard soprano clarinet bell.  This made the bass notes sound more in line with the rest of the instrument.  The low D is really an F concert, the low note of a basset horn, so this instrument can play all basset music by reading the parts a step up.  

Tenor Sax: H. Couf Superba I

In 2005, I traded 7 clarinets which I knew I would never use again for this, and it has been fun.  Hadn't played tenor in 20 years, and am now better (which says absolutely nothing.)  I knew Herb Couf, another bunch of stories.  A couple of guys who managed his import business, around the time this instrument was made, said that these came from Germany, but who knows for sure?  It is pretty nice, but heavy.

http://www.saxpics.com/Keilwerth/h-couf.htm

Flute: Gemeinhart M3

Solid sterling head, plated body, in-line G.  A friend's ex-wife sold me this for $100, and even I can play it after the overhaul.

Sopilkas

Roman Volkov F and C sopilkas - penny whistles that finger like no other wind instrument, not even kaval.  Order them direct from the Ukraine, on EBay.  They are very inexpensive and a blast to play.

Mixer: Mackie 1402VLZ - flexible and portable, but with a learning curve. My wife has a 1202VLZPro, and does good things with it at her elementary school assemblies, with very humble mikes and speakers. (I have the older, non-"Pro" model, less head space, but still a great product).

http://www.mackie.com/products/1402vlzpro/

Powered Speakers: JBL EON 15 P1 - 150 watts. The Eon 15G2 is 450 watts. I like this lower-powered model, because it is $200 less, and there is no need for enough power to permanently lose my hearing in 12 seconds flat.

http://www.jblpro.com/eong2/index.htm

I used the 1402VLZ / EON15P1 combination to amplify songwriter Steve Seskin in the cafeteria at my wife's elementary school, and it worked out just great - not obtrusive, and everyone could hear him well.  BTW Steve is at: http://www.steveseskin.com/

Other: Behringer Digital Feedback Destroyer Pro - this is a cheap, and very cool unit. Note that it works at Line Level, not Mike Level. You need to buy it from a store that has someone on staff who has actually used one of these on live events, as the manual was written by German engineers and translated - enough said.

http://www.behringer.com/DSP1124P/index.cfm

Digital recorder: 

Zoom H1, certainly low-end, but so far so good.  And it uses AAA batteries.

Pasoana MK 2.0 clarinet pickup: This screws into a hole drilled in a barrel.  Eric Satterlee of Meridian Winds in Lansing, MI supplied the barrel and it works just fine.  This isn't necessarily the best sound reproducer available, but it is the only one I found with a removable audio chord, which will pull out instead of breaking the pickup when, not if, you step on it.  At £94.00 plus shipping, it is a relatively inexpensive solution that has served me well for its intended purpose, which is feeding an effects processor (see below).  There is also a MK 2.1 now, with better reproduction, at a higher price.

http://www.pasoana.com/

Digital Effects: Line6 Pod XT Live - for all you frustrated clarinetists who want to play with a rock band, this and a pickup (barrel or mpce mounted) is your ticket.  It opens up a huge array of effects and alternate sounds.  Reverb, Echo, Crunch, Flanger, Phaser, Stereo Chorus, down an octave, you name it.  Some experiments with preset effects are below:

http://ralphkatz.pbworks.com/ClarinetNewHorizons

http://line6.com/podxtlive/

German System Clarinets

I don't own one but this is a great resource: http://www.cs.ru.nl/~bolke/DuitseKlar/oehlerlistOld.html

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