New York Band Instrument Co. "TONEKING", Key of C

[Windsong]

My newest acquisition-- a New York Band Instrument Company "TONEKING" 4-Ring roller Albert and plays in High Pitch at 461hz.  (NOPE--No it doesn't.  It plays at about 438Hz.  It's remarkable what getting the tuner to the correct settings and paying attention will do for accuracy. SMH)
It has a nice tone, and might make a decent player.  It looks sufficiently hearty.


For the record, this also has the largest bore of any key-of-C clarinet I have examined, @ .565".  Even the Henri Farny C (detailed elsewhere) has a significantly smaller tapered bore of .535/.525".

On 40-year-old pads and sticky keys, this ToneKing manages a pretty consistent intonation and clear, bright projection.

[Windsong]

Here is a near carbon-copy of it; a Couesnon.  Both also happen to stand at exactly 20.5" without MP. 

Couesnon stenciled a lot of horns, and they had a very large operation.  They made very good clarinets, generally speaking.  Just noting that Couesnon almost certainly stenciled this TONEKING is the easy part.  A few comparative glances reveal that.  The tricky bit is determining how NY BIC came to stamp their names (and the name TONEKING) on them--perhaps years after manufacture.  You see, NYBIC was a name adopted in 1921 from the original name--NYMIC. New York Musical Instrument Co. Was already in use, and they faced a copyright infringement, so they made a small change to their name.

It is well known that Keilworth used the name TONEKING later, and they did stencil NY BIC'S brasswinds. 

I have found no evidence to substantiate the claim that they also stenciled TONEKING Albert system clarinets.  ROCKET points out to me that Richard Keilworth's brother, Julius Keilworth DID make Boehm system clarinets under the TONEKING name, but it appears this did not occur until at least 15-20 years later.  There may be too few of these left to generate much enthusiasm for research, but I will hold firm to the notion that these are just re-badged Couesnons that snuck out of Paris without the seemingly obligatory  "France" stamp.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/132785088846?_skw=key+of+C+clarinet&itmmeta=01KB17GV694K96G5QG9P7A5HH1&hash=item1eea9ba94e%3Ag%3Ay3EAAOSwDOlbn-Si&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cvAA5XjjlqnhSNLCMafF0urJoWkN3V%2Fx0%2FtYPOlz%2Bu2o0mPo%2BXenFyfJjuaocSPwLWMDdq9d9TfuPRlVgswfdS54Zsbh0c%2BweO3oYUDLM9L8cjaozzT2%2ByqhjSvrSu2CJUGa710yCAULvgbTQgYi0wqEYXOGk19HeOqxovcT1BiPVhUjjpb712HRRyzpgcd97XE7IvwSU%2BupqOjw7jjqV1T0HrCq65MX5QImIuPWEETXNYQjjmViCspVyp8--Hx60%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6qzw6fYZg&keyword=key+of+C+clarinet&sacat=0&relatedSearch=true

[Windsong]

More of the TONEKING:

[Windsong]

It has a sound that draws me in:

[Windsong]

I have begun the tear-down and conditioning of the Toneking, and I am getting pretty excited.  I already liked the tone it presented, but pads were failing to seal and the mechanicals were sticky and in need of cleaning and oiling.  It was well past time.

Curiously, as I removed the top joint's key work, and began cleaning tone holes. I found that the vent for the ring key had never been drilled.

Good grief, man!  What's the point of the ring key without a vent!  It serves absolutely no purpose since it actuates nothing else.

That said, I am not afraid to drill it, but I am no tonality expert.  The relief accomodates a 1/16" hole, approximately.  That seems like a safe starting point, but I would appreciate anyone's .02c who may have sage advice for me.

[Windsong]

The top joint had a superficial crack that did not go through to the bore.  When it arrived (as seen in the photos above) the flush ring had loosened and fallen off, and I was fortunate to be able to act immediately and have the seller find the flush ring and send it to me.  It was expertly made from what appears to be billet aluminum, and even tapered to match the barrel perfectly, so I am glad to have been able to re-unite it with the horn.  It has been re-attached, and to paraphrase Mr. T:  I pity the fool who tries to remove it now!

It is a shame that a flush ring was even fitted, because it surely did not need one, but what's done is done.  We thankfully don't have the same kneejerk reaction to fit flush rings to everything as we used to, but then, cyanoacrylate is amazing stuff, and only available in modernity.

[Windsong]

Further evidence that lends to the notion that this Toneking is actually a re-badged Couesnon are the scribe marks on The undersides of the keys:  In this instance--"XII".  Having had several Couesnons, (including Lafayette "student" models) from the teens, as the market was heavily saturated with them at the time, I have posted on this before.  All have had the same type of scribe marks.  These marks pay no allegiance to location on their respective horns; any given horn has the same number scribed on the underside of most keys.   

1912 is plausible.  It (and others) may never have been released by Couesnon, and therefore sold off to a fledgling music emporium in need.  These may have been assembled in the U.S., even--and therefore, forwent any obligation to declare their French origins.  Who knows?  It's a workable theory. 

1912 is an interesting year in that it would have been as likely to have been High Pitch as Low Pitch, if not moreso.  Notwithstanding, the keys would not have changed for either pitch, only their respective orientations atop the horn.

And then there is the notion that I am nuts for believing these scribe marks relate to year of manufacture, and that is a distinct possibility as well! 😁

[Windsong]

Having received another shipment of pads last evening, the top joint is back together, and playing pretty well.  I will let the pads bed in today, and keep tweaking, as needed.