Bliss Clarinets - Wow...

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http://www.kesslermusic.com/blog/?p=40

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So back over a year ago, Leblanc (division of Conn-Selmer) teased the music world with prototypes of their newest upcoming clarinet models, the "Bliss" models designed by Morrie Backun. These prototypes were fantastic playing instruments, though not finalized product.

Well, the wait (and it has been too long if you ask me) is finally over. Leblanc has finally started to ship their newest clarinets and the clarinet market is in for a surprise! These clarinets are going to take over as the dominant instrument based on their playability.

The Bliss clarinets come in 3 flavors. They all use the same overall design and features.

LB320: Composite Body & Barrel
LB310: Composite Body with Wood Barrel
LB210: Wood Body & Barrel


The "composite" used is NOT an ABS plastic but rather a "new proprietary material with better acoustic profiling and strength". In fact, Leblanc is so confident about the strength of the material that they have doubled the warranty from 5 years to a 10 year warranty.

There are many features of this clarinet that are unique to the Leblanc/Backun family of clarinets. Items such as a reinforced low E bar, multiple adjustment screws and the "voicing groove" inside the bell make the Bliss models the most advanced and technically impressive clarinet in their price range.

Voicing Groove
This is personally one of my favorite design features on the Bliss models. Prior to these models release, the voicing groove was a feature that could only be found on Backun's bells ($600+) and the Leblanc Symphonie model clarinet ($3300+).

Basically, this groove creates a small back pressure at the exiting of the body limiting the amount of air that can exit the bell of the clarinet. This gives the air column in the body a higher rate of compression to the air column forcing more air out of the open tone holes thus giving the player a better tone and response, especially across the break of the clarinet.

This Voicing Groove is on all 3 models of the Bliss (the photo is from the all wood LB210 model).

Improved Tone Hole Feel
The Bliss is also undercutting AND overcutting tonehole chimneys. The overcutting improves the feel of the clarinet making it easier for the fingers to "find" the hole. Honestly, when I read about this feature, I said "so what". Now that we have actually had it in our hands, wow, it makes it feel quite nice.

STRONG Keys!!!
This was one of the more impressive things that we noticed. The keys on the Bliss are just incredibly strong! Leblanc says that this is due to a high chrome content in the nickel-silver alloy. Whatever it is, these are the strongest keys we have ever seen on a modern clarinet.

Cool Black Keys
OK, so this one is just cosmetic and to be honest, the original prototypes that I saw for the black nickel plated keys looked terrible. Well, they have come a LONG way. The standard key finish on all Bliss models will be the black nickel plated keys. Think of it as a black chrome. They look great and Leblanc is giving a 10 year warranty on the key plating.

Silver plated or Nickel plated keys are available on special order. However, stick with the black nickel, it looks GREAT!!!

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There are a lot of other things that I could go on and on about with these clarinets, but in the end the only thing that matters is how they play. The only way for you to know is to play one. But if this is any indication for you, the Bliss and Backun clarinets are the entire reason why we are no longer buying from Buffet. Yeah, that's not a typo. These are really THAT good. (update for late 2009 - due to certain market influences, we have started handling Buffet again in certain select models. We still recommend the Bliss to most customers).

I really recommend to most people the middle Bliss model, the LB310 (composite body with wood barrel). That wood barrel makes a noticeable improvement to the tone of the clarinet really bringing it 95% of the way to the tone of the all wood model.

Especially for students, doubler's or as a backup to an all wood clarinet, the LB310 is the best value of the line.

To see more pictures of ALL the Bliss models, visit our company website here: http://kesslermusic.com/SelmerLeblanc/backun/bliss.htm

If you have any questions, I personally answer most of the phone calls that come in over our Toll Free number.

Hand Assembled

So I have noticed a new trend forming in the music industry that makes me quite happy. We are seeing several brands starting to pay more attention to "hand time" as I call it. This is just as it sounds, more work being done truly by hand.

For manufacturing and cost reasons, more and more instruments had less and less "hand time" in their assembly over the past few decades. This of course helped bring quantity levels of good horns up, but over time, the quality has continued to slip.

Well, we are starting to see a change. In particular, I am finding a few instruments from makers like Conn-Selmer that are going back to the "roots" of instrument making. Products like the Bach Strad trumpets and the new Conn "Vintage 8D" models. These are examples of horns that once were truly done by hand and had gotten more and more mass produced over the years. Both now are using more hand assembly now. With the Vintage 8D french horn, it is completely hand assembled.

The downside to this is cost. More hand time means more employee hours meaning more cost to make the item. But the upside is in performance.

When instruments are truly hand assembled, there tends to be less stress at solder joints which frees up the vibration of the instrument thus producing more response and sound from the horn.

Its just nice to see in the day and age of mass production and computers, that even some of the big guys can still bring back old world craftsmanship.

New Selmer Paris Series III Bari Sax

Selmer Paris, the world's leader in professional saxophones has been teasing the Bari market for years with rumors and hints at a new Bari sax design. Back in January 2008, I posted on the Sax On The Web (SOTW) forums that we had a chance to see one of the first Series III bari saxes in person and play it.

As I posted on the SOTW forums, we were VERY impressed with the playability of the new horn. The intonation was superior to previous designs, the ergonomics were much improved from the Series II and most importantly, this horn had the response that was lacking from the Series II.

Overall initial impression: Great playing horn and arguably one of the best we have ever played.

Fast forward to today and we find ourselves on the "eve" of official shipping. We have obtained 1 stock photo of the new Series III bari sax and will show you all some of the new aspects to the design.

First, the concept of this horn was to create a low A bari that vibrated and responds like a low Bb bell bari. This is a tricky feat to accomplish as part of the problem is that the extra weight created by the longer bell of the low A bari severely hinders vibration. Many players want the low Bb bell response but NEED a low A key these days.

So in order to accomplish this, Selmer decided to lighten the horns overall weight. This was done in several ways. First, they got rid of some on the bracing in the neck crook. The weight at this point of the horn can make a substantial difference in the overall response of the horn through all the registers. Combine the lighter weight neck crook with the improved bore design and you get a good performance improvement.

I also notice a tighter bore neck that then seems to rapidly increase once it hits the body of the horn. I believe this is a tighter bore neck then the Series II design was which if so, will give greater compression to the air column and better speed giving a more focused and responsive sound.



Another change done to decrease weight is the ribbing construction. For those who don't know what this is, read my post here about it.

With the Series III alto, tenor and soprano, Selmer opted for a "mini-rib" design. In stead of doing a full solid rib in any spot of the horn, they do several smaller ribs. I refer to this as a "split rib" myself since they are still doing a ribbed construction of sorts, they are just splitting up a rib instead of making a singular rib smaller.

This split rib is from the rib holding the posts of the left hand stack of the horn. This I believe makes a big change in the vibrational response of the saxophone. This design concept doesn't work on all horns but rather depends on the bore. From our experience playing the Series III in January 2008, this split rib construction is a good idea on the Series III bari.

The last area where Selmer chose to decrease the physical footprint on the horn was the bell to body brace. This is one area where I personally am going to have to disagree with the choice made.

With a low A bell, the other negative aspect is the ability of the larger bell to be knocked out of proper position. This type of damage can happen rather easily on a low A bari. Most manufacturers have switched to a "3 Point Bell-to-Body" brace. The concept is that instead of having just the 2 contact points, one on the body and one on the bell, a 3rd contact is added to the opposite side of the body. This extra brace helps stabilize the bell.

We did bring this up to Selmer when we were trying the horn and they believe that the horn would not need it and that the 3rd contact point effected the performance of the horn. They also believed that the people who would be buying such a horn (price tag of $9,549) would tend to be more responsible players and would take better care of the horn then your typical high school student would.

Only time will tell whether or not this was a good idea. While I do not have photos of the case, I do recall that the case provided with the horn does seem to brace the bell of the bari better then most bari cases. This can help with this concern but in my opinion, will not fully prevent it from happening.

The last interesting design concept to note on the Series III bari is the new approach that Selmer has take on the floor peg. Some players have floor peg mounts put on the bottom bell bow of their bari and now several companies offer this as an option. Yanagisawa for instance offers a floor peg mount.

The idea is that with a floor peg, the player no longer has to worry about supporting the weight of the horn when playing thus allowing their hands great flexibility for playing.

The problem with most floor pegs is that even when not using the peg, there is a rather large mounting bracket still attached to the bow of the bari. This bracket adds a lot of weight but more importantly, if the horn suffers an impact on the mount directly, it can cause catastrophic damage to the bell of the horn.

For the Series III, Selmer has come up with a great mounting idea. The horn is standard equipped with 2 mounting knobs on the front of the bell. When the peg is not in use, these knobs have brass covers screwed on to them. To use the peg, one simply unscrews the covers and then screws on the floor peg. This gives great support but without the negative aspects. There was even talk of offering a "standing" position peg as an accessory so that the player can stand with a peg attached that is long enough to reach the floor.


All in all, the Series III bari is definitely a different animal then anything we have seen from Selmer in the past. Overall, I love the changes made on the horn. My one concern is on the bell to body brace. Hopefully I am wrong.

I have great respect for Patrick Selmer and all the team at Selmer Paris. I think that they make great products and have continued to impress the industry with revolutionary designs and performance.

Dave Kessler

If you are interested in purchasing the new Series III Baritone Sax, please call our store Toll Free at 1-888-830-0474 Mon-Sat 9:30-6:00 West Coast Time. You can also email me at music@kesslermusic.com