See, the Penzel Mueller company is fairly well known, I've worked on many of their instruments and am well impressed by their build quality and playing characteristics.
When this clarinet showed up I was a bit puzzled. I knew that both Penzel and Mueller had separate firms in the early 1900's before they joined up, but this clarinet, marked only with Penzel's name, was certainly not from this era based on the keywork.
Well with some digging it turns out that sometime after WWII, perhaps even in the 1950s, near the end of the Penzel Mueller company, they offered the "G Penzel" line. All of these instruments had serial numbers starting with the letter "U" as this one does.
Three models were offered in this line, the Professional, Pacemaker, and Bel Canto.
I just had a Bel Canto thru the shop a few months back! The Bel Canto was supposed to be a "student" instrument but certainly was not built like one or play like one, it was fantastic!
Anyway back to the "Professional" clarinet here. Not sure who they were aiming this clarinet at but it seems like they intended it to be for the professional musician, eh?
The wood and build quality are typical Penzel Mueller style here, top notch.
The only downside to this instrument in particular was that the key plating was very very tired, worn, patina'd. Could be worse.
New leather pads were installed and any cork that needed replacing was replaced.
It plays great!
I believe the bore is .585" if I remember correctly. I should write these things down!
This clarinet came with the original (I'm assuming) Penzel Mueller "Artist" mouthpiece which was very nice, good quality ebonite with a nice facing.
As of writing this I'm just finishing up a run of clarinets through the workshop, I have 7 soon to be 8 clarinets up for sale!
I always say working on clarinets is a breath of fresh air after the sometimes complicated scenarios that happen with vintage (and non vintage!) saxophones.
Just as a teaser there's an old Kohlert bass clarinet showing up this week!!!!!
I happen to come by one, I only have one problem. The bell has about 6 cracks in it. It seems to me this was caused by the wood drying which also seems to be made incredibly lite and thin. I am not sure if this is repairable or of it would be worth the time and energy.
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