Metal Clarinets and Silver Clarinets

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The Metal Clarinet Test

During the first half of the Twentieth Century, hundreds of thousands of metal clarinets were produced. Many of these clarinets were used by students or were played in marching bands. They were a good alternative to wooden clarinets for several reasons -- they are resistant to cracking and can be played in any weather condition, they are easily mass produced, and they are very shiny. Because they were so easily mass produced, many of the instruments were of inferior quality. Metal clarinets developed a bad reputation and as soon as instrument manufacturers were able to make clarinets out of plastic, the metal clarinets went out of fashion.

However, several companies made professional level metal clarinets to compete with wooden instruments. The Silva-Bet, made by Bettoney, and the Silver King, made by H. N. White were among the top professional metal or silver clarinets, along with those manufactured by Selmer and Conn. Top of the line instruments were also made by the Holton, Buescher, and Pedler companies.

Despite the fact that many of these metal clarinets were outstanding instruments, their reputation was ruined by all of the cheaply made horns that did not sound good and played very badly out of tune. Today there are a number of clarinetists and collectors who understand the value of the instruments. Metal clarinets can be found on eBay and every once in a while, a good instrument will appear for auction.

Can You Hear the Difference?

So -- can you tell the difference between a metal clarinet and a wooden one? Listed below are audio clips of four clarinets. There are two examples for each instrument: an excerpt of the beginning of Rose Etude Number 1, and an excerpt of Rose Etude Number 2.
The choices are as follows (listed chronologically):
Silva-Bet by Bettoney
Cleveland by H. N. White
R-13 by Buffet
10G by Selmer

Clarinet Number 1; Rose #1
Clarinet Number 1; Rose #2

Clarinet Number 2; Rose #1
Clarinet Number 2; Rose #2

Clarinet Number 3; Rose #1
Clarinet Number 3; Rose #2

Clarinet Number 4; Rose #1
Clarinet Number 4; Rose #2

Listen to each one and if you care to guess, send your answers to Kyle Coughlin at kyle@kylecoughlin.com to see if you are correct.

About the clarinets (they are listed chronologically here):

Silva-Bet, made by H. Bettoney. Silver-plated metal clarinet that was probably made in the early 1930s. More info about this particular instrument and pictures of it.

Cleveland, made by the H. N. White Company. Brass clarinet with silver-plated keys; it dates from the late 1950s. More info about the Cleveland.

R-13, made by Buffet. This clarinet dates from the early 1980s.

10-G, made by Selmer. This clarinet dates from the early 1990s.
More about these wooden clarinets.

Further links:
My experiences with metal clarinets
My thoughts and opinions on metal clarinets
The advantages of metal clarinets
More info and pictures of the Silva-Bet used in the recordings
More info and pictures of the Cleveland used in the recordings
More info on the wooden clarinets used in the recordings

About the clarinetist:
Kyle Coughlin is a clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer based in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an active freelance musician and has performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Opera, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, as well as many other groups in the Baltimore-Washington area. He has performed recitals and concerts across the country and has also performed in Evian, France. Coughlin earned his doctorate in clarinet performance as well as a masters degree from the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Loren Kitt. He has a bachelors degree from the University of Maryland where he studied with Ed Walters (who does not play on metal clarinets). Coughlin has recorded and produced two jazz CDs: When Afternoons Return, and In the Shadow of Palms.
He took an interest in metal clarinets in the spring of 2007, and has purchased several of the instruments despite being chastised and called a lunatic by many of his friends and colleagues.

Find out more about Kyle Coughlin.

About the recording process:
All of the audio examples were recorded using the Zoom H4 recorder. The clarinetist made sure to stand in the exact same place for each recording. None of the examples have been edited in any way. No reverb or effects have been added.
The same mouthpiece and reed setup was used for each clarinet.