MECHANICAL FEATURES

Our E-flat & D clarinets offer a choice of 3 trills or 4 trills with f/g trill.

f/g trill: The trill tone hole is roughly at the same height as the tone hole for a’ flat. a’ to b’ and c”’ to c”’ sharp are trilled with the top trill. c”’ to d”” is played with the additional second key, as is f’ to g’ (particularly useful if the second c”’ key has been built). If the two upper trill keys are pressed simultaneously, bb’-c” can be trilled.

The B/f” sharp tone hole moves laterally under the right hand to the side of the body, giving the index finger more space to play comfortably.

Both levers for the left little finger, f and e flat, are alternative fingerings for the keys otherwise played with the right hand and date from the time of the Baermann/Ottensteiner clarinet around 1860. For a long time, the e flat lever was used instead of a fork f resonance key in order to be able to intonate the fork f” high enough. Today, the f-lever is preferred in order to be able to avoid slipping the ring finger on the right and to avoid the sound of the fork fingering. Where we can get to know our customers’ hands, these lifters are positioned so that the little finger can make optimum use of them. Find out more on our page on custom-made products.

With us, you have the choice of having both levers fitted to your instrument, just one of them or none at all. On request, we can also build our Model 2000 so that one or both of the levers can be easily retrofitted.

Schwenk & Seggelkeclarinets are available without bell mechanism or low E mechanism. The low E mechanism corrects the intonation of the low E through a resonance hole in the bell.