Company:F. Arthur Uebel
Type | Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH) (Germany) |
---|---|
Industry | Manufacture of woodwind instruments |
Founded | 30 April 2010 |
Headquarters | Wiesbaden, Branch office Markneukirchen |
Key people | Jürgen Stoelzel, Wiesbaden |
Products | Clarinets |
Website | en |
The company F. Arthur Uebel GmbH (FAU) is a German manufacturer of clarinets with headquarters in Wiesbaden and production facilities in Markneukirchen (Saxony).
History
The company, founded in 2010, sees itself in the tradition of the clarinet manufacture founded by Friedrich Arthur Uebel (de) (1888–1963) in 1936 in Markneukirchen.[1] Uebel was the son of the woodwind instrument maker Friedrich Gustav Uebel (1855–1915) and had studied with the clarinetist and clarinet maker Oskar Oehler (de) (1858–1936) in Berlin to learn the craft of clarinet making. After Oehler's death on 1 October 1936, he opened his own workshop in Markneukirchen under the name F. Arthur Uebel, taking over Oehler's customer base and also the construction method of the Oehler Clarinet, producing high-quality instruments for professional clarinetists.[2][3][4]
In 1984, the factory was nationalised and merged with other wind instrument manufacturer. After the Peaceful Revolution, the company was privatised in 1990 and the production of Uebel clarinets continued as a dependent part of the business. In 2005, for economic reasons, the production of Uebel clarinets in Markneukirchen was discontinued.
In the course of the liquidation, the music dealer Arnold Stoelzel GmbH in Wiesbaden, managing director Jürgen Stoelzel, acquired the rights to the name as well as the construction and manufacturing documents and then had Uebel clarinets manufactured in a production facility newly built for this purpose in China. In 2010, Jürgen Stoelzel founded the current company in Wiesbaden with a branch in Markneukirchen and set up a workshop there where Uebel clarinets are once again manufactured, mostly using parts prefabricated by the Chinese sister company.
(As of 2022), the company manufactures clarinets with German and French system (Oehler / Boehm) as well as accessories. The product line of Boehm clarinets has been greatly expanded in recent years. At the beginning of 2022, the company moved into a newly built production facility with an office extension in the Markneukirchen industrial park.
Products
All clarinet models[5] are made of grenadilla with silver-plated machine heads, the higher-priced ones also of mopane with silver-plated or gold-plated keys. The company produces clarinets with both the German and the French system, which is becoming increasingly important.
With the German system, three soloist models are offered in BTemplate:Flat tunings, one of which is also available as an A clarinet. Furthermore, two standard models in BTemplate:Flat and A and one in ETemplate:Flat are produced, as well as three beginner models in BTemplate:Flat, one in C and one in low G, and finally a professional bass clarinet reaching down to low C.
With the French system there are seven professional instruments in BTemplate:Flat and A, one of them also as a basset clarinet in A and another also as a C and as an ETemplate:Flat clarinet, besides – as a special feature – a plateau (capped) clarinet in BTemplate:Flat. Then three standard models in BTemplate:Flat and a bass clarinet reaching down to low C are offered.
Distribution
The distribution has been taken over by the company Arnold Stoelzel GmbH in Wiesbaden. In Europe and South America, the company uses the established music trade, while in the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, Australia and Singapore, it has called on the services of local general distributors.
Endorser
Well-known F. A. Uebel players include:
- Giora Feidman
- Alexander von Hagke (de)
- Ricardo Morales[6]
References
- ↑ Birgit Matuschewski (2006) (in de), Chronik eintausend Jahre Erfindergeist in Sachsen: Musik und Instrumente (Chronicle of One Thousand Years of Inventive Spirit in Saxony: Music and Instruments), MPR-Verlag, p. 121, ISBN 978-3-935579-03-2
- ↑ Website, History of the FAU Company Retrieved 15 May 2022
- ↑ Enricio Weller, Erste Adresse des deutschen Klarinettenbaus – Geschichte Bedeutung und Entwicklungsleistungen der Markneukirchener Holzblasinstrumentenwerkstätte F. Arthur Uebel (First Address of German Clarinet Making – History Significance and Development Achievements of the Markneukirchen Woodwind Instrument Workshop F. Arthur Uebel), in: rohrblatt 8 (1993), pp. 142–146; 9th (1994), pp. 52–60.
- ↑ Enrico Weller (2004) (in de), Der Blasinstrumentenbau im Vogtland von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts: Untersuchungen und Dokumentationen zur Geschichte eines Gewerbezweiges der Musikinstrumentenindustrie (Wind Instrument Making in the Vogtland from the Beginnings to the Beginning of the 20th Century: Studies and Documentation on the History of a Branch of the Musical Instrument Industry), Geiger, p. 257, ISBN 978-3-89570-986-9
- ↑ Website, clarinets
- ↑ Ricardo Morales wird Teil der "F. Arthur Uebel"-Familie (Ricardo Morales becomes part of the "F. Arthur Uebel" family), Das Musikinstrument, 12 September 2018
External links