Ralph Katz

Music Equipment Page
(last edited 1/31/2008)

As a philosophical statement, I won't identify my Bb & A instruments, reeds, or mouthpieces. 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 your tone production and general musicianship, by playing for 3 months on a different type of instrument, reed or mouthpiece. Avoid dependence; develop finesse.

C instrument: Stephen Fox #02006.
Options: short barrel, center tuning ring, LH Eb/Ab, modified Stubbins register vent/throat Bb.
For Stephen Fox see: http://www.sfoxclarinets.com/
For more C clarinets: http://RalphKatz.pbwiki.com/CClarinets

Tenor Sax: H. Couf Superba I
Two years ago, I traded 6 clarinets I knew I would never use again for this, and it has been fun. Haven't played tenor in 20 years, and I am now better than I was then (which says absolutely nothing.) I know Herb Couf. 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 a nice horn, but rather heavy.
http://www.saxpics.com/Keilwerth/h-couf.htm

Clarinet Ligature: Bonade inverted - for the best mechanical coupling of the reed to the mouthpiece. My feeling is that this will give you the most flexibility. IMHO harder reeds and softer ligatures, that lots of people use to attempt to "darken" their sound, just muffle things and limit control. Try a softer reed and relax for darkness when needed - I have seen this has 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 any other woodwind instrument. But this is just my opinion.

Mixer: Mackie 1402VLZ - flexible and portable, but with a learning curve. My wife has a 120VLZPro, and does good things with it at 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 he 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

Newest toy: M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 - this small hand-held USB device will record to Compact Flash cards in stereo to uncompressed WAV files from a supplied mini-mike, or from 1/4" inputs. I got a 4Gb CF card online for $35. Three weeks later, the price dropped to $32, so I got another one. Each card will hold 4-1/2 hours of live audio. I ripped all 32 of my Klez CD's (at 256K bitstream) to the first card, plus another dozen clarinet concertos, and still have 1GB left. The 2nd CF card is free for live recording. [Also consider the Zoom H4 - different inputs and controls, 4-channel sound-on-sound. Lots of people like these.]
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main.html

Other: 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.
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

Back to Clarinet page: http://ralphkatz.pbwiki.com/Clarinet

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