Clarinet Metalite M11

Colin the Bear

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I've been having some sucess on soprano with a selmer S80 F I picked up on ebay. The band I sit in with and dep for have been asking for more clarinet and I've been struggling. I recently found a wood Corton which is great but seemed to have more to give than I was getting so I decided to try a different mouthpiece. The S80 opened up the sop for me in way I didn't think possible. Easy to blow and a full rich tone (for me) right up to the top and maybe a wider tip was the way to go with clarinet.

I was looking at vintage pieces of various makes, Vandoren pieces and the Selmer S85 120 but they were a little out of my price range. I noticed an add on Ebay for a brand new Rico metalite M11 which was old stock from the late 1980's. Tip opening 0.065". I've tried them on everything else, sop, alto, tenor and bari so why not give it a try. It was in the USA and it worked out at $30 including shipping. Not much of a risk as they resell easily.

The upshot is that it arrived yesterday. It's the familiar grey plastic with the same high baffle layout. I rooted in the drawer and found a ligature. The £3 chinese, bought on a whim, fit well and finally has a use. The metalites I tried on saxophone were loud, free blowing, bright and fun to play but not my usual style. The clarinet piece is amazing. None of the brashness I found with the saxophones. It's free blowing and sweet. Rich and full at the bottom and refined and sophisticated right up to an overblown G.

I was enjoying it so much I lost track of time and was nearly late for the lunchtime gig. I decided to take it with me and give it a try with the band. I couldn't decide if I was being brave or foolish. Clarinet isn't my first instrument and I don't really play it. I have a small repertoire of numbers I know and can get away with in simple keys.

It performed beautifully. Plenty of effortless volume and character. None of that struggling to be heard against the trumpet and not a squeak or peep. What a lucky find. I'm well pleased.
 
That's well worth knowing! Trying to make yourself heard with clarinet is disheartening...

I am using a Metalite M5 on tenor and like it. The acoustics are dead where I practice and it helps a lot.

I played somewhere with a slight echo the other day - wow! I started to worry that I might shatter some wine glasses when I gave it a bit of welly... given a room with reasonable or average acoustics I find I can really do all sorts of things with the tone which I can't in my caravan practice room.

Practising with dead acoustics isn't very encouraging, but maybe it has its good points - it makes you work so much harder on tone...
 
Come to think of it, I remember reading that. I wonder if it went in subliminally. Played it again today. You can really push and give it some welly without the tone breaking up and it'll whisper top to bottom.

Cassells didn't have many left so be quick if you want one.
 
Come to think of it, I remember reading that. I wonder if it went in subliminally. Played it again today. You can really push and give it some welly without the tone breaking up and it'll whisper top to bottom.

Cassells didn't have many left so be quick if you want one.

Appears they don't ship to New Zealand, they will ship to Australia, Israel, Iraq, Nepal (no doubt there is a Sherpa playing a Metalite on his clarinet in the Himalayas somewhere) and every other nation on the planet except NZ (!?) Ah, well the Yanks are never very good at geography...

I sent them an e-mail advising they will send to Australia, and NZ is 1000 miles to the east of Australia with a greater land mass than the United Kingdom...maybe they will be running to buy an atlas or 'google' New Zealand...

Greg S.
 
Appears they don't ship to New Zealand, they will ship to Australia, Israel, Iraq, Nepal (no doubt there is a Sherpa playing a Metalite on his clarinet in the Himalayas somewhere) and every other nation on the planet except NZ (!?) Ah, well the Yanks are never very good at geography...

Greg S.

there are quite a few clarinetists in Nepal and most of 'em could do with a decent mouthpiece 🙂 http://youtu.be/6wDZVqI5gVg
those indian made clarinets are terrible
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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