I have the periodic opportunity to play outside, and while I could play a plastic bass, I'd get lost in the low brass and we rarely have enough (soprano) clarinets playing anyway.  While I could bring a good wooden clarinet, certain persons would have me drawn and quartered.  I've played a Vito 7214 and my current plastic clarinet is a Selmer Signet, which has been nicely repadded and had the thumb rest replaced with an adjustable one that will take a strap and moved up from the small-handed child position to where my thumb naturally falls. 

I got my Linton alto back from the shop a few weeks ago, and I've had it at rehearsal and practiced at home a bit.  It's a nice clarinet, but could use some thin thin nylon or PFTE washers in a couple of spots to take the side-to-side wriggle and clankiness out of the spoon keys.  I can play it in-tune with the ensemble OK.  I did noticed that the socket in its neck was smaller than the LeBlanc's neck socket, as inserting my favored J.B. Hite mouthpiece was proving to be difficult - tenon was ok, but the cork was too thick.  I swapped to the Noblet MP that had come with the LeBlanc and that worked OK in the Linton.

I had noticed some squeakiness and was wondering if I had been too aggressive with flattening my (current) reeds or if the reeds I was using were too soft for the instrument, so I worked on a pair of 2.5 reeds and used one of them during rehearsal on my LeBlanc alto Thursday night.  Other than "new harder reed cheeks" (ow), I declared the reed "good". 

Scanning for a bargain last month, I picked up another Noblet alto clarinet mouthpiece on that auction site.  Trying it tonight (after it had a day  to acclimate to being inside), I noticed that its tenon was simply too large to fit into the socket without a fight.  Odd.  Obviously, I need to break out the micrometer.  I suspect it will fit into the LeBlanc's neck just fine.  What someone was doing with a mouthpiece (no cap or ligature!) and no clarinet, I know not.

So, I broke out the Linton alto again tonight and decided to run through "Nightmare"  (the alto has its own part and brings some nice dissonance to the piece) with the new reed.  It worked fine, but I noticed the squeak again - however, not needing to keep up with the ensemble, I noticed that I thought that I felt my fingers mis-hitting the keys, which would definitely cause a squeak.  Here's a photo of the bottom of the upper joint of the Linton (top) and the LeBlanc (resting in its case).  Note the difference in where the touches are and the apparent size of the pads under them.  The inside diameters (per sticking my thumb in) appear to be approximately the same.  The upper joint of the Linton is already longer because of its shorter neck. 

I think I need to break out a measuring tape and a micrometer.  I don't want to take it apart, so you're not going to get tone-hole measurements at this time, sorry.

I've tried a couple of tuners, both on iOS (Apple) and Android.  They worked well enough, but never well enough for me to give up my little Korg.  I've since stumbled across DaTuner and liked it enough to spring for the Pro version, which gives me a kind of strobe tuner (memories of high school!) and lets me do things like transpose so when I play a C on a Bb clarinet, it shows as C on the tuner.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bork.dsp.datuna

My only complaint about it is that there should be easy pre-sets for Bb/Eb/F transposition.

Has anyone else gone the app route?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Wood-Clarinet/172301682083

Brand-spanking-new seller wants $122 for a clarinet but says nothing about it:

Beautiful and refined this Clarinet is perfect to practice and improve with. Comes with everything needed to play besides reeds. Has two mouthpieces but one has slight damage the other is in fine condition. Feel free to message me with any questions. 

The Yamaha pad cleaning paper is an interesting touch.

This ligature, with reed mounted, came on a one-piece full-Boehm Buffet clarinet in A.  No idea who made the mouthpiece, as I haven't been able to get the lig off yet.  It looks as if it's just a squeeze fit, but to do that would move the reed, so there must be a trick.  Does anyone have an idea?  I haven't broken out the soft-jawed pliers yet, nor the rubber gloves to increase my grip.  Haven't risked the tip by whacking it against the counter, either.  At that point, why bother?  (Links to the photos b/c of the small upload limits)

https://goo.gl/photos/w69KBv2F21ph6Mb3A
https://goo.gl/photos/C768ZV2ZMDwSyKLg8
https://goo.gl/photos/DB6LuUyRLHvGLwkK6
https://goo.gl/photos/fZqV7LxfQHqk4xgMA
https://goo.gl/photos/hKTpiykebLDgtqjA8
https://goo.gl/photos/ptyC5yCPyfhBjZeRA

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131398933284

Slightly odd, but whoa, more keys than my alto or bass.  Plays okay.  I knew that I needed to replace the barrel.  (Someone drilled a hole in it for a microphone)  What the seller either didn\'t notice or didn\'t disclose was that the bridge key on the upper joint is broken off.  If the seller isn\'t the one who did the work, it\'s possible that the tech didn\'t tell him about it.  

Album: (two photos)





It looks as if the bridge key itself is press-fit onto the end of the shaft of the middle-finger ring key.  (you can\'t see that in my photo)  

What I\'m hoping is that either I can source a replacement key (assembly) from behind the former Iron Curtain or that it\'s actually a DDR knock-off of a (full Boehm) R13.  

It is playable as-is, but I lose the alternate Eb/Bb 1-- 1-- fingering I use sometimes.  I can\'t reliably hit notes above the A above the staff, so I won\'t miss it on those notes.