Hansel Portal

An Eb clarinet or effer of Ngee Ann Secondary that have not seen day lights for years! Yes! this clarinet have been kept away for some time and time to give its shine back and removing the funny smell caused by time *I think*

Other then cleaning it, Also did some adjustment to it, to make it sound better and easier to play! reducing the opening of the octave key, for a better response and corks to various key to prevent key knocking against key. As for tuning, added some white tacks to reduce the extreme sharpness of this instrument, reducing as much as 20 cents of sharpness!

As for the beaten up mouthpiece, a slight resurface to make the table flatten and slightly more opening.

I think it’s looking like new and plays better in tune now!

Nice concert.. but too short for $10. I hope the school can look in to make it more worthwhile next year.. And playing on the stage is truly a bad idea for the band, as the sounds were all trapped in the stage by all the curtains.. An issue that have been around since my time even in the old school hall.. Band rulez!!

It’s a germen bore clarinet that Suhaidi brought from japan! It’s the 1st time I see a germen infront of me, and best of all I got to tried it out. The feel of the clarinet is obviously that its smaller then the convention french bore clarinet it’s much more smaller!! everything felt very compact kind of like Eb clarinet maybe.

As for the sound of it, it’s also very different from french bore clarinet a very focus sound which I wasn’t very used to hearing it!

Keyworks consist of some german style octave key with double vent like bass clarinet. Tunning C closes 2 pads instead of one. And some other additional keys. According to Suhaidi, german clarinet must use a german mouthpiece and reed else its tuning will be wrong.

Conclusion, very very interesting, but personally I would not convert to germen clarinet as I won’t be able to use my french mouthpiece, barrel and all other accessories.