When a certain Italian made clarinet (serial 5/258) sold by the Pastore music company of New Jersey came my way, I had to do a double take. One of these is in my current collection. Penzel and marketed by Penzel Mueller as student line instruments under various names, such as Trailblazer. However, there is no denying the evidence that some imported European clarinets of good quality were branded G. And most of them are USA built and typify the high quality associated with New England musical instrument makers. When we think of Penzel Mueller clarinets, the ubiquitous association is "American".
I now think it is more plausible that the B suffix designates the second serial period and nothing else. The first time I saw a "B" suffix PM serial, I thought it was for the Bb model. No pre-fix with B suffix only - Soloist (includes some exceptions) U - Professional, Traiblazer, Pacemaker (there are some exceptions that have unusual serializations)
R - Bel Canto (no exceptions so far although Bel Canto models exist in the early serial series with no letters) M- Artiste model before Brilliante and then Brilliante (all Brilliantes so far are M, Artistes are M or L so far) L - Artiste model after introduction (post war?) of the Brilliante model H - Empire or Empire State (no exceptions yet) Summarizing the pre-fix letter/model serial system: This, of course, greatly complicates specifically dating any given clarinet, except those few that have dated documentation. Rather than an alphanumeric serial system, once the prefix system was adopted, each model had a different serial sequence. Note that the majority of letters in the alphabet are never used as prefixes. The letter prefixes could be more important than the names on the clarinets in designating features. These are not typical beginner band clarinets, IMO. The brass "student" equivalent trumpet of the 1960s would have been something like a Bach Mercedes.
The quality these U models that I have seen up close is such that these are as well made as many professional clarinets and feature durable key plating, fine wood, and very good playing characteristics. If that is the case, Penzel Mueller really only made one student model, the U model. So far either case is plausible, but in general it looks like the sequence could be Professional > Trailblazer > Pacemaker. We don't have enough information so far to know if the model names ran parallel or sequential in time. These U models were added late in the Penzel Mueller history. Penzel", but obviously were built mid 20th century with features like the T-shaped LJ bridge engagement. These are the student/intermediate line models, usually identified as "G.
We now have several examples of serial numbers with a "U" prefix and these "U" models are variously the "Professional", "Trailblazer", or "Pacemaker", models. Most of these in the list I have collected some photographs to go with the numbers. It is becoming apparent that the Bel Canto was the "R" model. This gives a us a very definitive marker for the "H" model, be it "Empire" or "Empire State".Īnother Bel Canto model has appeared with an "R" prefix serial. As we have often surmised, an Empire State model is the Empire during a certain time frame, and now we know that included the late 1930s. And of course there is the model designating H prefix. Sometimes these also have wooden bells, but the composite bells are more common in the Bb LP, Empire, and Empire State models. Many of these early models were material hybrid in nature - usually fine grenadilla except for the bell, which was usually a composite, bakelite on most of the ones I have. Even the case interior is the same as it is for my Empire H-14898B. It should also be noted that an "Empire State" marked Penzel Mueller has all the same features common to the Empire model and earlier LP B model. What this tells us with certainty is that the letter prefix serialization was underway at least for the Empire State models by the late 30s, however the numbers in these serials are very high, which might indicate that the H prefix was applied to Empire models while the original numerical sequence was maintained. The appearance of "Empire State" number H-12385 complete with the original case and all major parts is an artifact that in every way corresponds to the late 1930s professional clarinets. I added several more Penzel Muellers that I have seen since my last post and one is very interesting - others continue to fill in the minor blanks.