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Any other Mazzeo fans out there?

As a new (re-incarnated) Clarinet player, I have become a fan of the Mazzeo Clarinets.
I purchased a set of Mazzeo A/Bb Series 10 horns on EBay (not sure if the A horn will see much action)
wonderful horns, but did need to acquire a shorter barrell to play in tune.

When I saw a Signet Mazzeo on EBay I was interested as it was listed with a low starting bid and after only one other bidder, and I purchased it for ~$140.00. After some back and forth I learned that the seller had acquired it from a great uncle who purchased it new, and the seller had it checked out by a tech and played it for a few years in school in the 90's.

I sent some pictures of the mechanism on the Series 10 to the buyer (it's a different mechanism on the Signet and Bundy - odd :( ) and showed her that she needed to press the lower rings to make the side Bb open.

The seller indicated that she really wasn't a player anymore, and wasn't certain that the Mazzeo was functional,
as it didn't work as (I) had described.

I told her that I would buy the horn and return it if the Mazzeo didn't work and that I would absorb the expenses. It arrived and - the Mazzeo was in operative.

I brought it to my tech - he had a Mazzeo Service book. He looked everything over.
His service book applies to Series 10 Horns - so it wasn't helpful - but he could not get the Mazzeo mechanism working as something was missing.

The seller (grudgingly) accepted the return.

The point of all of this:
1. The great uncle purchased the horn and paid for the Mazzeo feature
so why would he disable it?

2. The student (grand niece?) had no great knowledge of
musical instruments, so it would not make since that her tech would disable it.

It is interesting that the late, great Terry Stibel (hope I spelled his name correctly) posted that most of the Mazzeos he came across had been disabled.

I don't think the hardware changes with anything on the horn (at least on the Series 10)


Why it would need to be altered is a mystery to me
 
If I had to guess, I'd say that it was disabled by someone who liked having the ability to flatten the throat tones with the RH rings.
For what you, Terry Stibal, and I (and likely others) have found about most of the ones for sale having been disabled-perhaps they'r missing the pin thing that the non Paris made Mazzeos needed to work? If I recall right you add a pin to the mechanism to reenable it.
 
If I had to guess, I'd say that it was disabled by someone who liked having the ability to flatten the throat tones with the RH rings.
For what you, Terry Stibal, and I (and likely others) have found about most of the ones for sale having been disabled-perhaps they'r missing the pin thing that the non Paris made Mazzeos needed to work? If I recall right you add a pin to the mechanism to reenable it.

I was fairly certain that the mechanism was inoperative, prior to purchasing it. There's a knurled screw on these that I understand can be turned to disable
the Maz function, I was hoping it would be that or as something minor like the pin as you have suggested.

Unfortunately, my tech indicates that some vital part or parts were missing. Per the throat tones comment above - I suppose, but problematic Bb2 is
much cleaner using the Maz fingering.

I wonder why Selmer would develop 2 different types of key work for the Maz, they probably overestimated the popularity of this feature.
 
http://collections.nmmusd.org/Clarinets/Mazzeo/Mazzeoclarinets.html

Looks like Buffet made some in the early 1970s. Mind you, it's just a fast Google search :). It'd also be interesting to see if the Series 10, Signet, and Bundy all have slightly different versions of the keywork. Remember that the Bundy and Signet were made by Selmer USA and not Selmer Paris.

I don't know how famous Mazzeo was in the clarinet world. Maybe Selmer was hoping that the name would at least bring folks in to a music store to try some horns.

FWIW, the G# trill key and Eb vent key that was very common on pre-WWII saxophones is often disabled or completely removed by some techs. The stated reason is generally, "Better intonation." Hey, the keys were good for 40ish years (I don't remember when these keys were invented, off the top of my head. IIRC, late 1890s), so why do we need to disable it now? Is it because mouthpieces are significantly different? Are new players learning a different technique? Is it because tech B learned it from tech A? Is it a combination of things?
 
I'm pretty sure that a lot of those ones in Mazzeo's collection are ones made out of normal Boehms by Mazzeo himself-I can see plugged toneholes for where the original throat A tonehole was on most of them, for instance, including on those Buffets.
Is anyone here old enough to remember the pro clarinet world in the early 60s and see what Pete said about Mazzeo's name being a selling point? I know he'd be well known in Boston, but I have no idea about anywhere else. (plus he'd probably have been better known as a bass clarinetist.)

(Also for the fork Eb-probably what you said about tech passing it to other tech over the years. Or that it's easier for it to leak when left working.)
 
http://collections.nmmusd.org/Clarinets/Mazzeo/Mazzeoclarinets.html
It'd also be interesting to see if the Series 10, Signet, and Bundy all have slightly different versions of the keywork.
I don't know how famous Mazzeo was in the clarinet world. Maybe Selmer was hoping that the name would at least bring folks in to a music store to try some horns.
Yes the Series 10 Maz is completely different than the Signet and the Bundy. I have a set of A & Bb Series 10 Mazzios, that is why I was wondering
why it made sense to develop a different version for the US horns. I really find the feature useful when transitioning the loathsome break, and again, the Bb2 is nice,
but this could also be accomplished by use of the right side palm keys (is that what they're called in the Clarinet world?), but the Maz is less awkward.

Mr. Mazzeo's era preceded me, but I think he was fairly well known. He wrote a popular book on the Clarinet that can still be purchased on Amazon.
 
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