Klarinet Archive - Posting 000220.txt from 1996/09

From: Luuk van Buul <vanbuul@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: wood vs plastic (or: masking impurities)
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 23:36:17 -0400

On Fri, 30 Aug 1996 Elizabeth Lim wrote:

>Buffet Crampon's top of the line models -RC Prestige and Festival- don't
>have dyed wood. I understood whilst visiting the factory in France that
>the best wood is claimed by these models because of this, especially
>because it is important that the different parts of the instrument, i.e.
>bell, barrel, upper and lower joints, are uniform in appearance.
>
>I have also come across students of mine with Leblanc Noblets that had
>mixed plastic and wooden parts.
>--
>Elizabeth Lim

This is exactly what happens at Leblanc. The Concerto, Opus and the other
top-line model (name escapes me) are not dyed. The wood to be used for this
instruments is selected on its appearance.

I noticed in the factory that most scrap occured during production when some
major impurity appeared in the wood of the clarinet while drilling or polishing
the wood. Small faults are corrected by hand (on the cheaper models) and
overall masked by the dying of the clarinets.

Luuk van Buul

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Philips Research Waalre Philips Optoelectronics Centre
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