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SHORT ITEMS
Following the transfer of the sole agency for the supply of Fox bassoons and oboes to John Myatt Woodwind and Brass in 1998, Alan Fox and Larry Festa, President and Vice-President respectively of the Fox Corporation, spent a week in the UK presenting their instruments. John Myatt and Helen Tumelty (bassoon specialist at the shop) were hosts to a series of events held in Hitchin, and at the Royal Academy of Music, the Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
At each event Alan Fox gave a fascinating talk on the acoustics and design of bassoons, revealing to those present the secrets of the success of the Fox bassoon, and in particular the methods used to balance the tone and tuning of each instrument. We learnt of the different approach required for the long and short bore instruments, and the changes necessary when designing a thick wall model. A very high profile was given to the new double star crooks (bocals to Alan) and the players present were obviously impressed by the new potential of these crooks.
I am not permitted to reproduce every detail of Alan's presentation, but he emphasised the problem of the note A on every bassoon, caused largely because the whole tube only extends to low B flat, so that some harmonics are suddenly lost for every A available. Needless to say, Fox bassoons do not have a problem after the experiments carried out at the South Whitley production centre. A video is available to show the many steps in the production of every level of Fox and Renard bassoon, from the student polypropelene models to the finest professional instruments in various maples. Those priveleged to hear Alan's talks know the variations introduced to the bore and to the North, South, East and West of the tone holes to produce a uniform scale and perfect sonority. At the end of the day the only important question is "Does it play?" and the answer suggested by the sales we saw at the end of the week was a resounding "Yes!" Having taken over the whole stock of Laurie Taylor (Sanderson and Taylor were the previous distributors) plus the orders still in production, there was some concern that we might be over-stocked, but after Alan and Larry left us we were busy making the "Sold Out" notices. Perhaps the greatest surprise came when the last of our three Fox contra-bassoons was sold, and we moved from worrying about when they would be sold to when we could get another for stock.
It was a bonus to have meals with Alan and Larry and with some of the leading players in the country, and since the tour our oboe specialist Kate Le Page has enjoyed the Fox hospitality and a visit to the South Whitley workshops. It was a very worthwhile exercise both for the Fox Corporation and for their new UK distributor, and we hope it is the beginning of a long-term relationship.
Our clarinet specialist Val Cheesman recently visited the factory of Buffet Crampon to see in person the process of manufacturing top quality instruments in a state of the art factory.
The year 2000 heralds the one hundred and seventy fifth anniversary of Buffet Crampon, a large and well respected company under the umbrella of the Boosey & Hawkes group. It began life as a small clarinet manufacturer in Paris in 1825 and then in 1851 moved to the town of Mantes La Ville, 40 kilometres west of Paris. The Buffet/Schreiber group now have two sites of similar size, the second is in Germany & manufactures all student clarinets from the B10 to the E11, German system clarinets, student oboes, Schreiber bassoons & Keilwerth student & professional saxophones. The French factory is responsible for advanced clarinets from the E13 to the Elite; the so called "Harmony" clarinets (ie: bass clarinet, Eb's etc.), professional saxophones, professional oboes & French bassoons.
The contact between the two factories is close & there is some interchange of parts from site to site. Mantes La Ville is mostly concerned with clarinet production and a brief tour reveals the level of sophistication that has now been achieved. Their global policy is a careful compromise between technology and tradition, always with close contact with musicians & players.
The wood source is Africa - specifically Tanzania and Mozambique. It is referred to as ebony, African blackwood, grenadilla or m'pingo; but it is all the same tree and is chosen for its density, strength and ability to vibrate. It is oil treated & then dried for between five and fifteen years. Selection is made for cheaper or more expensive models according to density, cosmetic appearance & grain; the best wood being reserved for the Prestige clarinets which are unstained & preserve the wood's natural beauty: wood quality is the main difference between basic models and top professional instruments.
The Green Line material is still a closely guarded secret which I was not party to; it is created by a high-tech process that marries 95% mpingo wood powder with carbon fibre and is prepared at the factory behind closed doors (further information on woods and green line available in Stephane Hascoet's article in our 98/99 catalogue).
The work force on the French site numbers only two hundred and historically includes individuals who start working for Buffet as school leavers, spend all their working lives at the factory & eventually retire from management positions some 40 years later. The lowest paid workers feed the wood in to highly complex and computer operated machines; whereas the master craftsmen have more responsible and skilled positions preparing the bore and eventually assembling the top models for the play-testing which follows. Each master craftsman has a junior who will learn his skills and pass on the tradition to future generations.
Buffet pride themselves on their quality control and each stage of manufacture is carefully inspected by a control manager before moving on. There are three full-time employees who play-test every instrument before it is packed and once a week a top soloist visits the factory and spends a day testing and assessing instruments before they are eventually packed and despatched.
Most of the recent changes at the factory have been to improve efficiency; repositioning machinery to give maximum use of floorspace and ensure that the manufacture process is a logical sequence preventng unnecessary toing and throing by employees.
We have already seen the new E11 Eb clarinets and the year 2000 sees the introduction of two new products - the E11 "C" & the Vintage "A" clarinet to add to an already impressive array of instruments played and admired by musicians all over the world
Valerie A. Cheesman
(clarinet specialist)
Some retailers have a policy of supplying instruments still in the unopened box as received from the manufacturer. This means that the overheads incurred in setting up are drastically reduced and the price can be correspondingly more competitive.
We believe this to be a short sighted and flawed policy and would like to illustrate the advantage that the purchaser receives when dealing with a reputable specialist supplier by going through briefly what happens when we receive a new saxophone:
On receipt and unpacking of the instrument, there is a careful visual inspection of the instrument and case. Corks are removed, the instrument is played from top to bottom, minor adjustments are made by the instrumental specialist including balancing and regulating the action. If more serious remedial work (eg seating of pads, G# adjustment and general once over) is required the instrument is taken to the workshop. When work is completed it goes back to the specialist who again plays from top to bottom - if still not satisfactory it goes back to the workshop; otherwise accessories (reeds, pull through etc.) are added and the instrument is put on the shelf and offered for sale. If an order is received it is once again played before despatch.
New instruments are guaranteed for one year from purchase - any problems are looked at by our specialist and guarantee work carried out as necessary during this period. In addition, we recommend bringing the instrument in shortly before expiry of the guarantee for a last check over.
A few years ago we featured an article about Edward Pillinger who was carrying out research into clarinet mouthpieces at the London Guildhall University. As a result of his work, Ed is now widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in the field and was invited to read a paper on mouthpiece design and acoustics at the 1998 International Society for Musical Acoustics in Seattle.
Ed is now also established as a maker of high quality clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces. These mouthpieces are the result of years of work into the effects of design on tone and response, and of consultation and collaboration with many distinguished players. Many of the designs are totally new and innovative, others are based on beautiful older designs which are no longer available. All the mouthpieces are hand made in his workshop, none being produced from imported blanks. The finest quality materials are used, ranging from traditional ebonite to state of the art resins which have been chosen for their acoustic properties, strength, stability and durability.
For clarinettists who wish to have an existing mouthpiece copied, Edward can make identical copies in ebonite or acrylic (black or clear) using the traditional method, or by a moulding process, using super resins. Relaying is another feature of Ed’s work, and he will also copy and transfer lays from one mouthpiece to another.
If you are a member of an organisation and would like to arrange a lecture demonstration in which an artificial embouchure can be seen working, and participants’ tone analysed, Ed can be contacted on 0181 954 4058 or by email: edpillinger@eggconnect.com
A LONG RELATIONSHIP
My first wife Alma studied conducting at the Guildhall in the 1950's, winning the conducting prize (a considerable achievement at that time for a woman conductor). She studied with Norman Del Mar, and brought back stories of her fellow students such as James Galway and Guy Woolfenden, and the leading light in the bassoon fraternity, Dominic Weir. Over the years I met Dominic and bought his bassoon reeds, but in the last two years we have worked more and more closely together, developing new patterns of reed for every level of player. He now visits us regularly and co-operates with Helen our bassoon specialist to help us offer the very best to our customers. Having retired from the LPO he has more time to spend putting his amazing skills as engineer and designer to their best use, and his knowledge of players and makers worldwide is an invaluable pool for us to tap. I am always grateful for his generous offers of expert advice whenever needed, and his warm friendship makes every visit to the shop an occasion for us all to look forward to with great pleasure.
With competition increasing many companies are extending their model ranges and making changes to existing models.
Conn have changed all of their rotary valve linkages from string to mechanical and introduced a number of new models. The Conn Artist 52H dual bore, .525/.547 Bb/F large bore that will sell for £799, the Symphony 88H-ODB which is the same as the 88HO but with a dual bore, .547/.562 hand slide and three interchangeable lead pipes and will sell for around £1145 and the ultimate Conn 88H-CL Bb/F tenor trombone with it's Christian Lindberg CL2000 valve and the open wrap .562 bore F section, this is a must for the Conn lover and will sell for £1595. All Conn Symphony trombones come with a choise of a heavyweight rose brass bell (Elkhart bell) or the yellow brass bell as used by Christian lindberg, all of which can be supplied at no extra cost.
From the Benge stable there is the 165F Optima large bore Bb/F with annealed gold brass bell selling at £750 and the Benge 290 dual rotor bass with a .562 bore annealed gold brass bell and in line independent triggers selling for £1599.
After a succesful year with Besson trombones B&H are making a narrow width slide for their Sovereign tenor trombones but this must be specially ordered.
Jerome Callet, New York master trumpet maker is now manufacturing a new model jazz trombone that has an 8" heavy bell, a trumpet style venturi lead pipe and is advertised as "the most powerful tenor trombone ever made". This will be available in the autumn, will cost £1750 and will be available in the UK exclusively from Myatts - the sole UK distributor of Callet products.
We are proud to continue as UK agents for these hand made trumpets and have recently increased our stocks and in conjunction with Calicchio reduced the prices of the most popular models to £1350 to compete with all other pro horns; even those that are not hand made!
Dominick Calicchio was born in Rome in 1901 and began working on brass insruments at the age of 10! He moved to USA in the 1920's, working as a mouthpiece maker at the factory of Rudy Muck; but soon left to set up his own manufacturing business in California. His attention to detail and painstaking craftsmanship limited the number of instruments he made to und1er two thousand - his goal was to assure that every instrument was better than the previous ONE and that each artists requirements were met.
Dominick died in 1979 and his daughter Irma carried on on the family tradition of producing superb hand crafted brass instruments in limited quantities. Dominick's grandson Christopher Calicchio Weik is the man responsible for design and manufacture of the current range, providing the world's finest hand crafted instruments.
Players using Calicchio instruments include Chuck Findley, Freddie Hubbard, Chuck Mangione, Lee Thornberg, Claudio Roditi & Rahmlee. Are you the next?
We often boast that our main strength is the expertise of our specialist staff, but inevitably staff move on and new friends join us.
It is interesting to see ex-members of staff either starting their own businesses or joining our competitors, and we keep in touch with them on very friendly terms. Nevertheless, it is sometimes helpful for customers to know what expertise they can rely on when coming here, and current staffing is listed here for that reason. All staff are encouraged to be flexible, so that basic enquiries are dealt with by all staff, but more detailed service is always referred to instrumental specialists.
This year for the first time we found ourselves in the middle of a dispute between parents and their child over who owned the child's instrument.
It transpired that this is a most difficult argument to resolve, and a student at music college will normally assume that they own the instrument they play on, even though it was bought for them by devoted parents, sometimes for as much as £10,000.
In fact the title to the instrument appears to rest with the person who bought it unless an agreement is drawn up gifting it to the player. But does a verbal agreement carry any weight? The obvious scenario to anticipate is the student leaving home, studying, and then running short of cash and deciding to sell the valuable asset to buy a car or rent a flat. It is worth taking some trouble to clarify this position in good time so as to avoid a very embarrassing situation later.
I am grateful to Alastair Milne, Honorary Solicitor to CASS, for his advice on the accuracy of this article. He agrees that it is complicated, and reminds us that we should always keep the receipt for the purchase of our instrument, as this is the final proof of title. He also mentioned that there are tax-efficient ways of gifting an instrument over a period of years, which would obviously also cover this problem of ownership.
Research has shown that there are many ex-woodwind and brass players who would love to take up playing again but feel it would not be worth it as there are no groups or bands in their area that are suitable for their personal requirements, or because they feel that they are not of a high enough standard, or that band members are generally school age and they are too old.
This is where the Community Band, a band suitable for any age standard or ability comes into its own. You may now be wondering how you would go about forming such a band - we have the expertise and experience to help. Staff at John Myatt Woodwind and Brass have a vast amount of knowledge and experience, between them covering the full range of brass and woodwind instruments. Sales manager Clive Reeves has 25 years experience as a professional band musician, and was band Sergeant Major of one of the country's top military bands, the Band of the Welsh Guards. Assistant manager Des Taylor served as flautist with the Band of the Royal Anglian Regiment for 10 years.
When setting up a Community Wind Band you should consider the following points:
There are various ways of funding a community band:
Clive Reeves, sales manager.
Last year my daughter Polly became a member of the Guildhall Junior School, and at the same time I spoke to the Head of Woodwind, Robert Porter, about support for the school. During the year we have been in close contact about future co-operation, culminating in the setting up of the John Myatt Bassoon Scholarship starting in September 1999. Discussions are also taking place to support new initiatives for encouraging young players of other woodwind and brass instruments.
Further details are available from the Director, Junior Department, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DT, telephone 0171 628 2571.
We have described in detail in previous catalogues the Lyons C clarinet, and the curved head flutes for the very young, as well as the Yamaha and Aulos fifes as a very cheap and effective introduction to young flute players. Now we see the introduction imminent of the mini-bassoon from the Czech maker Amati.
This news is so hot off the press that the instrument is not yet available at the time of writing, but it should be during the life of this catalogue. The description of the instrument is vague because only a prototype is available at present, but commercial production is promised by the end of the year 1999.
We are talking about a bassoon playing a fifth higher than the standard model, and known in the past as the Tenoroon, playable by children as young as seven years old. It has nearly all of the standard keys, but we have made suggestions for certain modifications before production commences. At ten the student can graduate to one of the short-reach models of standard bassoon first developed by Fox and subsequently by Schreiber, before moving to the standard adult model at around thirteen. The mini and short reach models would ideally be provided by an institution such as the school or music service as the purchase for a young pupil would obviously be of short-lived use.
Guntrum Wolf has produced fine professional models in the past, but this is the first attempt at mass production at a student price (around £1500).
Hitchin may seem an unlikely place to describe as a centre for music, but it was one reason for my moving here after studying at the Royal College of Music. My first job was as a visiting teacher at St Christopher School in Letchworth, and the main reason for buying a house in Hitchin was that property was cheaper there. As the job was only part-time, I looked for other work immediately, and found some pupils at the Hertfordshire Rural Music School, not knowing that this was the first of several Rural Music Schools founded by Mary Ibberson, who still lived in Hitchin. She had by then established a centre for adult music studies at Little Benslow Hills in Hitchin, later to become the Benslow Music Trust, where residential courses are still held every weekend of the year, and summer schools and other week long courses throughout the year.
When I decided to set up a specialist music shop for woodwind and brass instruments, I worked with Eric and Howard Hill in Welwyn, where they still have a specialist string shop, and my first shop was shared with Richard Reason Pianos, who still occupies (and now owns) those premises. His pianos were moved around by our friend Richard Waterhouse, often using the Victorian winch to lift them to the upper showroom of the Tilehouse Street shop, and this Richard eventually opened his own piano warehouse in Arlesey nearby. His van is often seen in the area with its distinctive "The Piano Man" insignia.
Near the original shop in Bucklersbury we were joined by Machinehead Music which specialised in rock gear, and more recently by Evans Pugh Strings, who have established a reputation for supplying and repairing fine stringed instruments.
So a visit to Hitchin is worthwhile for customers seeking almost any instrument, perhaps with the exception of percussion or electronic organs. Here is an opportunity for two entrepreneurs to complete the family in the future?
The new MYATT OBOE REED MAKING KIT (£60) has everything a beginner needs to get started. The kit contains a mandrel, knife, cutting block, ten 47mm staples, a metal plaque, 5m of fine wire, 25m of thread, 5 pieces of gouged and shaped cane and 5 pieces of gouged, shaped and profiled cane as well as a small piece of goldbeaters skin. Everything supplied in a canvas black bag as part of the price representing an excellent discount on buying the items separately.
The new MYATT BASSOON REED MAKING KIT (£70) is also an ideal starting kit for a beginner. It contains a combination mandrel-reamer tool, a knife, cutting block, plaque, 5m of brass wire, 25m of thread and ten pieces of gouged, shaped and profiled cane. This kit is supplied in a black leather look bag with an outside sharpening stone pouch.
Both kits represent excellent value for money.
It is advisable to ensure that your instrument is insured - this can sometimes be effected by adding to your household policy as a "specified valuable" but check the small print with care as there are often exclusions which could render the insurance useless to you e.g. if the instrument is out of the house, at school, in your car, being used professionally, at a gig etc. There are a number of policies designed specifically with the musician in mind which cover some or all of the aforementioned eventualities - we can recommend the British Reserve policy and the Brass Band Insurance Services policy (see advertisement in catalogue) as being worth looking at.
Owing to prohibitive costs we do not cover rented instruments - if you are renting an instrument check that it is covered or look at one of the above policies! Instruments on approval are not covered, but for a small additional fee we can arrange cover for you.
Unfortunately instruments on approval are NOT insured - we can arrange
insurance however for a fee of £5 (total value of instruments up to £3000 or £10 (total
value £3000 - £7500).
Please note that this only covers instruments while at the customer’s home
Eliminate sagging on middle B, C, C# & G; and providing a free upper register without going flat or sacrificing volume.
Model XL: designed to give warm sound with an even tone quality
Model XP: More open & free blowing and with a briliant tone quality
Look out for the new Fox cor anglais range available during 2000.
10% DISCOUNT FOR ORDERS OF 5 BOXES (any combination)
or 5 BASSOON OR OBOE REEDS!
Place your order by 14.00 (Tuesday - Friday) and your reeds should be with you the next morning (Royal Mail and stocks permitting!). Orders can be left on our 24 hour order line (01462 436151) outside shop hours.
Hundreds of bargains - phone in December for sale list which will be sent out on Christmas eve. First come - first served!
Significant savings on items which almost all thos starting an instrument will require: two options available as follows:
OPTION ONE:
Music stand, available in different colours (normally £9) and a standard tutor (up to £7 value) all for only £11.00 !
OPTION TWO:
Music stand and tutor book as above PLUS a HIT Music Box (normally £10.95) all for only £20.00!
10% OFF ALL OTHER ACCESSORIES PURCHASED AT THE TIME AN INSTRUMENT IS PURCHASED OR RENTED!
We can offer short term rental on the professional Buffet Prestige basset horn (as owned and played by clarinet consultant Val Cheesman!) for £100 for 10 days - if you wish to hire a pair the cost is only £180 (carriage extra in both cases).
Subject to availability cors anglais can be hired for £100 for up to 2 weeks or £200 for one month.
Subject to availability a basic contra can be hired for £150 for 10 days or £350 for one month.
British Association of Symphonic Bands & Wind Ensembles
Royal Northern College, Oxford Road, Manchester
including the Boosey & Hawkes National Concert Band Festival
14th - 16th April 2000
An unrivalled 3 days of concerts, workshops, masterclasses. Featuring top wind players from around the world - an unmissable event - put in your diary now!
Ian Duckworth 0161 907 5249 (FAX 0161 273 7611) ian.duckworth@rncm.ac.uk