Kyle Coughlin's Experiences with Metal Clarinets

My Experiences with Metal Clarinets

I became interested in metal clarinets in the spring of 2007. A friend of mine has one that she purchased at a flee market many years ago, and she brought it in to the school where we teach. It is an old “Victory” that is in bad but playable condition. It was possible to get out enough notes to realize that it has a very nice tone. I then proceeded to purchase six metal clarinets of my own. The first purchase was a Cleveland made by H. N. White in the late 1950s. I went on to buy a Holton, a Laube, and a Bettoney Silva-Bet. All of these instruments have been repadded, cleaned up, and polished, and are in excellent playing condition. I also have a Silver King and an old Selmer that need a lot of work before they will play.

When I show other clarinetists one of my metal clarinets or tell them that I own a metal clarinet (let alone six of them), they typically look at me in disbelieve or flat out tell me that I’ve lost my mind. Then they make some joke about turning them into lamps. Non-clarinetists are usually more curious about the instruments and are often impressed with how they look. Almost everyone expects that the metal clarinets will sound thin or tinny or “metallic,” or worse yet -- like a saxophone! However, once they hear the metal clarinet being played, their reactions are of total surprise. If you listen to the recordings on the preceding page, you may or may not tell a difference between the instruments, and you may or may not like my tone. But if you didn’t know ahead of time that two of them are made of metal, would you ever have suspected it?

I have played several jazz gigs on the Cleveland and the Silva-Bet. The biggest challenge of the instruments is playing them in tune. I had enough flexibility on those gigs to work with the intonation problems. I have played a few rehearsals for classical gigs on them too, but I have not yet performed any classical gigs on them. I need to get a little more comfortable with the intonation before taking that step.