duckbill&vintage

1623 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by 1953SBAALTO, Jun 14, 2007

Sivarix

Discussion Starter · Jun 1, 2007

Anybody tried the New Berg Larsen Vintage? or Duckbill? for tenor. What's the difference between SMS and M in playing?

Kind Regards, Sivarix

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1 - 12 of 12 Posts

Sivarix, these topics have been covered fairly well, even recently I believe, so you may want to do a search Berg Larsen and sort through the threads..........here's one example of a related thread: http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=42160
The search function is your friend!........daryl

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Sivarix

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 2, 2007

Thanks a lot! I didn't now how to search...

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J.Max

· #4 · Jun 3, 2007

I wish I knew where to find these to try them. I'd really like to try a duckbill Berg...

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wersax

· #5 · Jun 4, 2007

You can order the new vintage Bergs directly from the Berg Larsen website, ( www.berglarsen.com ).....probably from Bill Lewington, (UK), and Musikhause Thomann, (Germany) as well. I bought the new duckbill when it first came out, (2002 or so?), and didn't like it. I found an old ,"very vintage" duckbill, that apparently this new piece is based on and love it. Either way, I like the design, but you know how inconsistent Bergs are. The new Bergs are really expensive, I think the new vintage is around $500 and the new duckbill is $600-700, which makes buying one and not liking it a problem......those prices make the $200 to $400 dollar price tag for actual "vintage" Bergs look much better, especially when you consider you can resell it for what you paid for it......daryl

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Nitetimer

· #6 · Jun 4, 2007

I bought a 130/0sms Duckbill when they first came out and it was very stuffy and had way too much resistance. It looked great but must have had a bad facing. A friend of mine also has a 100/2sms which plays exceptionally well and I recently bought a 115/2 which is just as good but brighter. The original Duckbills were for the most part, loud, bright and clear with a somewhat brittle sound which smooths out as you get familiar with the mouthpiece.

The Vintage model is a replica of the bullett models from the early 50's to the late 60's. They resemble the current models but are slightly larger around. They usually but not always had a more open sound compared to the later streamlined ones which were a little more focused. I tried a new Vintage 115/1sms that was stuffy with no clarity to the sound. I wouldn't commit to buying one of these Bergs unless you had the option to return it.

FWIW the current model advertised as the Bullett which has been out for several years is just a step baffle model with the step being curved to vaguely resemble a Bullett. Not sure why they introduced this model because it doesn't copy any model that was previously made. Before the step baffle came out around 1965 all the previous 2 & 3 baffles were bullett shaped. The Vintage model (which also has bullett 2 & 3 baffles) fills this niche better than the the current Bullett, or at least as far as reissues go.

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wersax

· #7 · Jun 4, 2007

"The Vintage model is a replica of the bullett models from the early 50's to the late 60's." This is an interesting statement, Nitetimer, and the Berg site says the same, BUT, the 40's and early 50's models I've seen were the "slant sig", (also called the "long table", or "very vintage" model). These pieces have a bigger chamber---I've had several pieces from the late 50's that resembled the "new "vintage"" models much more closely, (one from Theo Wanne, who should know when it's from)---and play differently than the later models. There's a great deal of difference from piece to piece in all Bergs, but, IMO, the chamber design of the earlier pieces is consistently different from later pieces, from the late 50's on......just my 2 cents worth......daryl

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Nitetimer

· #8 · Jun 4, 2007

wersax, I should have said "middle or late 50's" rather than early 50's. I could be wrong on these dates but I believe the original duckbill, long table, slant sig was from the late 40's to early 50's. For a short time between the duckbill & vintage models we're talking about was a standard type "bill" piece with a long table and slant sig. The whole piece had sort of a taper to it. There were some other styles in there but I don't think they were mass produced. Another thing I noticed was somewhere around 1960 the bullett part of the baffle moved closer to the tip and the side rails were more parallel and stayed like that for the remainder of the decade. The new Vintage model closely resembles this one in my opinion.

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J.Max

· #9 · Jun 5, 2007

wersax said:
You can order the new vintage Bergs directly from the Berg Larsen website, ( www.berglarsen.com ).....probably from Bill Lewington, (UK), and Musikhause Thomann, (Germany) as well. I bought the new duckbill when it first came out, (2002 or so?), and didn't like it. I found an old ,"very vintage" duckbill, that apparently this new piece is based on and love it. Either way, I like the design, but you know how inconsistent Bergs are. The new Bergs are really expensive, I think the new vintage is around $500 and the new duckbill is $600-700, which makes buying one and not liking it a problem......those prices make the $200 to $400 dollar price tag for actual "vintage" Bergs look much better, especially when you consider you can resell it for what you paid for it......daryl

I should have clarified. I wish I knew where to find one from a US dealer. They aren't any more expensive than the regular ones, but the dollar is so weak that getting one from Europe is a rather expensive proposition.

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wersax

· #10 · Jun 6, 2007

J.Max said:
I should have clarified. I wish I knew where to find one from a US dealer. They aren't any more expensive than the regular ones, but the dollar is so weak that getting one from Europe is a rather expensive proposition.

I guess I wasn't much help then! Sorry............daryl