Silver Throat clarinets

[DaveLeBlanc]

Hey folks! This is the new Silver Throat clarinet thread.

First order of business... Who made them?

I believe Pruefer came up with the idea, but did they make it or was it stenciled?

There are other silver throats as well:
1. Pruefer
2. Sherwood
3. Hallmark (hard rubber)
4. Linton (resonite)
5. FE Olds & Son (hard rubber)

Must be a stencil...

[Airflyte]

What? No love from anyone for the Pruefers? My very first clarinet was a Silver Throat model. I still have it and have no desire to get rid of it!

[clarinetcrazie64]

What? No love from anyone for the Pruefers? My very first clarinet was a Silver Throat model. I still have it and have no desire to get rid of it!

yep,.. i too owned a Pruefer Silver Throat once ..  it was a superb clarinet.. but i ended up selling it..  currently i\'m bidding on an interesting Malerne composite clarinet that supposedly has a nickel silver lining in upper joint..  don\'t know if that qualifies as a \"silver throat\" though .. but it\'s not mine , yet ! have to wait and see what happens .. it would be my 1st Malerne .. never had one before..

[clarinetcrazie64]

well ... i just got in my Malerne Standard composite clarinet with the fully lined in nickel silver upper joint.. of course i don\'t know for sure what the metal is that lines the upper joint.. just going by what the seller described it as.. he also referred to it as the \"silverstreak\" model.. but there is no such label to be found on the instrument.. just has the typical R.M. R. Malerne Paris Standard markings .. it is all composite/hard rubber ..with the addition of the metal lined upper joint.. condition overall is quite good.. i can see the spacing between a few of the side trill keys isn\'t quite right.. everything else works great though.. i am very impressed with the way this clarinet plays.. it\'s so easy to play too.. all the keys are just set up perfectly.. the ergonomics are excellent.. and intonation, at least within it\'s own scale is excellent too.. or pretty darn good at least.. just a marvelous clarinet.. i\'m so glad i took a chance on this thing.. i love it so much i just might keep it for my permanent collection .. it makes sense, because i don\'t have any composite or \"silver throat\" like clarinets currently in my collection ..

[philpedler]

Would Pruefer been first?
 
Another brand was LaMonte.
http://www.clarinetpages.net/vintage-plastic-composite-clarinets/la-monte
Another is Martin Freres Grenetex. This page has lots of print ads with dates:
http://sites.google.com/a/clarinetpages.net/www/vintage-plastic-composite-clarinets/martin-freres-grenatex

The above seem to have been popular in the early 1950s.
And Pruefer was active before 1950. So perhaps it is right that Pruefer was first.

[clarinetcrazie64]

and as my post indicated, don\'t forget Malerne ..

[philpedler]

Several jazz players for whom I reconditioned Pruefers have been passionate about them. They like them because of the perception that they give more volume in a band where one is trying to be heard against brass instruments. I am not sure what to think about the tone of these. It has been a while since I tried one.

[DaveLeBlanc]

Another one for the list: BC Cadet

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Embassy-and-Cadet-Wood-Clarinets-For-Parts-or-repair/192492142571?hash=item2cd16cffeb:g:UGwAAOSwnklat8PF

[Airflyte]

I also have a composite Malerne with a metal lined upper joint. I really don't want to quote a nearly 4 year old post so just read reply #3!

Will try to get pics up soon.

[zigzigy7]

i possess a besson & co bakelite simple system clarinet that belonged to the canadian millitary band seemingly around the time of ww1 with a silver lined tuning barrel that is compatible with only that clarinet and vice versa.

[DaveLeBlanc]

That’s quite interesting. I did not know that they did that so early. I always thought Pruefer pioneered it in the 1930s or something.

[zigzigy7]

based on the fact that it's the simple system as well as other key-work traits it predates that by at least a decade. this was likely a stencil clarinet, by who i cannot definitively say

[windydankoff]

I've been collecting and restoring Pruefer Silver Throat (PST) clarinets because I LOVE their big expressive and beautiful tone. I've learned a lot that I will share here. FIRST THING is that you don't get the full deep tone OR good intonation unless you use an appropriate mouthpiece. I got two PSTs with original factory MPs that are wonderful (large chamber and bore). They respond best to a soft reed. Results with normal mouthpieces are mediocre. This is a reason that we see such mixed reviews about PSTs. I am still experimenting to find (and modify) a standard MP that will emulate the originals.

The bore is large, thusly: Upper Joint (UJ) 14.95mm straight, lined with nickel silver tube
Lower Joint (LJ) starts same but expands radically to a very large bore. Tone holes are much larger than normal in the LJ, and holes are extremely undercut. Keywork is unplated nickel-silver, very high quality. I found that R5 synthetic pads make a great improvement to the tone (especially in the LJ).

I will share more, as I learn and as my work allows.

Meanwhile, here is a brief  history of the company and the product.
Source: The Clarinet Board plus my own research

1906 Gustav Pruefer started clarinet company.
1914 he merged with Penzel and Mueller to form Penzel Mueller and Pruefer
1920 Penzel had died, Mueller gained control of the company and Pruefer retired
1920 Gustav Pruefer traveled to Markneukirchen, Germany and helped Moennig to modernize his factory
1921 Gus restarted Pruefer clarinet company in Providence, RI, Hans Moennig joined Pruefer
US Patent issued 1931 for a complex metal liner for wood clarinets, allowing for expansion of the wood (Pat. #1801690)
1942 ad showed Pruefer ebonite clarinet with nickel-silver lining in upper joint
1955 ad showed similar instrument with the trade name Silver Throat
c. 1960, Silver Throat Deluxe models began to be adapted to the student market, with smaller bore in lower joint, nickel-plated keys, and eventually plastic body.
 1976 Factory in RI burned down - RIP!

[windydankoff]

continuing -  Interesting to note that that the overall length of the PST is about 1/4 inch shorter than a typical clarinet. This compensates for the large bore, which would otherwise lower the pitch.

Pruefer apparently used continuous serial numbers regardless of the model or material (hard rubber or wood). For example, I have a wooden Artist Model with a SN close to that of a PST. Judging from one unusual design aspect (shared post for A/Ab keys), they appear to have been built around the same time (16K, mid-40s). The Artist Model has a bit smaller bore, but still with a similar expanded lower bore and the resulting short overall length. I look forward to resurrecting it one of these days!

PSTs from the 40s may say "Carl Fischer Exclusive Distributor". They do not say "Silver Throat". However, the lined upper joint is essentially identical to the named ST specimens, so I will refer to them as Silver Throat regardless of the labelling.

All six of the PSTs that I own included a marching band lyre.  Two included red lipstick on a reed. They were "only driven by a little old lady" when she was in high school! A 1942 ad priced them at the equivalent of $1600 in todays dollars.

[windydankoff]

Continuing now, about the need for a large-bore mouthpiece (from two messages before). I have searched high and low, asked all around, tried this and that, old and new, and turned up NO mouthpieces that sound nearly as good as the two original Pruefer pieces that I was lucky to obtain. I sold one with a PST to a happy client, and have one for myself, but I have four more PST horns that I will want to sell when I restore them, and I want them to have that BIG sound and free-blowing quality. I tried enlarging the bore and chamber of some standard MPs, but that only helped a little and it's risky. As an alternative to a large-bore MP, I took the next logical approach ... after I made an odd discovery.

With a standard MP, when I left a 2-3mm gap below the MP, it enriched the tone from bottom to part-way up the clarion. This is amazing, because on a normal clarinet, it spoils the tone. It did mess up the highs, so it wasn't a solution, but it was a CLUE. I decided on a more graceful approach to enlarge the bore of a BARREL, mostly at the top.

I produced an exaggerated "reverse taper" in a barrel, in two stages, making it extra-open at the top. Voila! With a classical French MP, I am getting strong and rich tone, and feeling powerful vibration very similar to the Pruefer MP. Intonation is good! I can hardly believe my luck, blessing, or whatever it is. The new barrel bore enriches the sound of a normal clarinet as well, but I'll do some intonation studies before reaching any conclusions.

Comments are most welcome. It's lonely here!
//  Windy // Black Hole Clarinets
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