Klarinet Archive - Posting 000493.txt from 1995/11

From: Donald Oehler <dloehler@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Restoring and maybe collecting
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 06:13:03 -0500

Dear Tom;
I'm not sure about "sources" or "materials" re restoration of older
instruments but I could give you a thought or two about collecting
clarinets and the possibility of restoring, etc.
I have been collecting and playing older instruments for some
years and one thing I have found is that it can be very risky restoring
really old horns. At some point your horn is or will become an antique
and therefore it has value for its own sack, as an antique. Dealers and
collectors are not very interested in instruments that have been
tampered with - they want them as they are.
You probably know this, though.
When you try to restore a horn for use as a
performing instrument
you run a good chance that the work will not do the job and then you end
up with a horn that nobody wants. (There are few people that can really
restore an instrument, especially repair people!) The best playng older
horns that I
have, and have played, have required almost no work other than making a new
mouthpiece (and, the old mouthpiece is still in tack for the dealer!). I
have also made barrels to alter the pitch of older horns and again,
nothing is done to the horn to alter its "as found" state.
A case can be made for horns that come from the earlier part of
this century, though. But, of course, someday they, too, will be
antiques if you are willing to hang on to them that long.
As far as the value of older horns I have found that the horn is
worth only what somebody is willing to pay or HAS to have in their
collection. Most antique dealers are savy enough to find out what they
have so the chance of coming up with a cheap "find" is less likely than
it used to be. A double-walled metal clarinet or my open holed Selmer
Alto clarinet or my Bb Leblanc contra bass (SS# 123) is worth much more
than a beat up boxwood multikeyed horn sitting in the back of some music
store or local boutique - usually. Now that I have said that someone
will write about how they a Grenzer from 1792 made in Germany that is
a low pitched Bb in perfect condition with a case and all for $50!
Well, those are my thoughts on the subject. Please don't make a
lamp out of some old horn! I salvaged a beautiful Heckle bassoon from
1876 that was headed towards floor lampdom! One on more than one
occassion I have gone home really depressed after discovering that an
instrument of interest had become someone's novelty.
Good luck.
Yours,
Don Oehler

On Tue, 28 Nov 1995 tom.spence@-----.COM wrote:

> Can anyone point me to sources of information and materials re
> restoring and repairing woodwind instruments, primarily clarinets? I
> am also interested in information re the desirability and value of
> collectable clarinets.
>
> If this is a misuse of the Klarinet system, please let me know.
>