Klarinet Archive - Posting 000140.txt from 1995/06

From: SCOTT MCCHESNEY <scmcchesney@-----.NET>
Subj: Old vs. New Clarinets
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 15:40:26 -0400

Since we've all been discussing shopping for new Clarinets, I thought
I'd throw this out into the wind and see what happens...
Everybody has been saying "buy this Buffet, or this one, or buy this
LeBlanc," etc. I have just been thinking about an incident I witnessed about a
year ago, maybe a bit longer:

My Clarinet is an old Buffet (ca. 1950's) that was used by one of the
local symphony players before my parents bought it back when I was a sophomore
in high school. I was told at that time that this Clarinet was a real find,
and if I ever sold it or didn't take care of it "my fingers would be chopped
off" (my dad had a flair for the dramatic.)
Anyway, we jet forward to last year. I was working in a music shop
which had teaching studios downstairs. The wife of one of our "roadies" (the
guys who went to call on the schools) taught Clarinet down in those studios,
and she was going to get a new Clarinet. She went to the Buffet factory, and
after careful selection and testing of Clarinets that came straight off the
line, she chose one and bought it. About three weeks later, she asked me if
she could play on mine - just to see what the difference was. I said OK.
She played on it for about 30 minutes in her studio. I was upstairs
working. When she came up to give it back to me, she asked me quite seriously
if I was interested in selling it. She liked it better than the one she bought
straight from the factory. I told her that I was not interested, but thanks
for the compliment. Since then, three other people have made a similar comment
about my instrument vs. theirs - and they all had Buffets that were newer than
mine.
This makes me wonder: was there really such a difference in the
Clarinets of that time vs. the new ones? Or did I simply luck into a very good
Buffet? And if it really was "better back then", why would one want to buy a
new one? I probably never will, unless this Clarinet suffers from the vague
"blowout syndrome" or otherwise becomes incapacitated. Or is it simply that
all the very good old Clarinets have owners who won't part with them?
Any answers out in electron-land?

-- Scott