Does anyone know anyting about F. Arthur Uebel Clarinets?

Question

This is an old wood clarinet. I think it is B-Flat and the keys are silver plated and it is much shorter than a modern clarinet. The serial number is 712231 821 if that helps.

Answer 1

Haha!  I knew that F Arthur Uebel was an apprentice to Oskar Ohler.  Ohler was a great clarinet maker in Germany and created the key system used there (the Oehler System- the keys on the clarinet are different there than in the USA- the Boehm system).

What I didn't know (until I did some research for your question) was that Uebel went on to be a great manufacturer in his own right... he worked on many clarinets, then handed them over to another apprentice (Warschewski) who tweaked them a bit and made them famous.  Both clarinet makers had famous clarinetists in Germany playing their instruments (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oehler_syst... ).

From what I can find, Uebel Clarinets were at their prime in the 1930's, however clarinets are still being made under that name today.  They have a website:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl...

It's in German, so I clicked the "translate page" option.

I haven't been able to find a serial number list for Uebel, though... I imagine there either is one that's published in one of the gigantic books that I can't afford (lol) or there's one in German (which I don't speak).  If nothing else, you can click on "sources" in the above website... it gives you a phone number (in Germany) that you can call and ask them for info.  And don't worry... most Germans speak English.

Anyways, I have one other thought... is it MUCH shorter than the traditional Bb clarinet?  Is the mouthpiece smaller?  It may be an Eb Soprano clarinet, which Uebel also made.

Anyways, sorry I couldn't have been more help, and I wish you luck trying to figure this out!  :)

PS~ Try posting on the Clarinet BBoard... there are a lot of people on that site that know a lot of really random stuff about things nobody else seems to! LOL

http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard...