Klarinet Archive - Posting 000452.txt from 1996/08

From: Donald Yungkurth <DYungkurth@-----.COM>
Subj: Buffet A Intonation
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 15:58:03 -0400

Mike Smith wrote about intonation problems with an older Buffet A, I believe
an RC rather than an R-13

My Buffet A, an R-13, has the serial 99544 and is no doubt a decade or two
older than Mike's. I bought it about three years ago, with some knowledge of
its history and a great deal of help from my teacher (a long time
professional in a significant orchestra).

This could be a long story, but the bottom line is this:

Try that horn with a good variety of tuning barrels. By this I don't just
mean different lengths. Try standard buffet, Moenig buffet and other
varients - what ever you can lay your hands on. The horn I bought would not
play in tune (with itself) with the barrel supplied. When mentioned to the
seller (acting as agent for the owner) the owner provided what was probably
the original barrel (judging from the appearance of the buffet logo stamps).
With this barrel or any of my teacher's well-regarded barrels I had good
intonation from the instrument (as did my teacher).

More interesting to me and also to the point - My old A (Maker was Gras -
French - best guess made about 1920) never played in tune with itself.
Recently I loaned it to a player and put a good Buffet barrel on it, by
chance. It played far better in tune than it ever had. The surprise was so
great that I went back to the original barrel I had used and, sure enough,
the intonation degraded significantly.

I also had need of a shorter barrel to match "high pitch pianos" (another
long story I won't go into). My teacher sold me two of his extras. My
favorite is a 62 mm barrel by Evette and Schaeffer (Buffet owned) that
apparently raises the pitch of the instrument (either my Bb or A) without
screwing up the intonation. I don't pretend to understand why this works - I
am just grateful.

It's hard to say if a barrel change will help you, but it would certainly be
worth a try, based on my experience.

Don Yungkurth (DYungkurth@-----.com)