Klarinet Archive - Posting 000172.txt from 1997/04

From: "Daniel G. Smith" <DANIEL.G.SMITH1@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Delurking, keywork question
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 18:14:24 -0500

I grew up playing older clarinets myself, and I vaguely remember seeing
the keywork you're talking about......the two clarinets I played were
made by Selmer and Buffet. I believe the Selmer clarinet had the
flattenned rings like yours does, although it's been a long time since I
saw it. It als had 7 rings instead of 6. I believe this was an attempt
to improve intonation. The clarinet was made in the fifties I believe.
This really is all I know. Don't know if it helps, but thought I'd write
it anyway! :-)

Have a great day!

Your friend always,

Daniel G. Smith

On Sat, 5 Apr 1997, Kathy Beatty wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I'm delurking, after having spent several weeks perusing all of your
> contributions to the klarinet list. My name is Kathy Beatty, and I have
> recently taken up playing again at the age of 43, having stopped playing
> way back in 1970 when I was sophomore in high school. Now that I'm
> playing again (practicing, really), I've been extremely delighted to
> find all the various clarinet resources on the Web, including this list
> and the marvelous clarinet resource web site brought to us by Mark
> Charette et. al. (thanks to Mika Systems, too!).
>
> Anyway, when I decided to start playing again (in Jan. this year), my
> old clarinet was not playable (a broken Eb key, a couple of broken
> springs, rotting pads), so I decided to rent an instrument from a local
> band supplier, Flesher-Hinton. They rented me a Vito model 7212. After a
> couple of weeks of playing this instrument, I decided I really didn't
> like
> the sound of the plastic instrument, so for about $200 got my old wooden
> clarinet fixed.
>
> To make a long story shorter, a lot of the information on the Web got me
> interested in trying to find out about the history of this instrument. I
> think I've already exhausted all the Web resources on this, but I'm
> still
> not sure about the make of my instrument, marked "EXCELLA" on the bell,
> marked "MADE IN FRANCE" on the rest, with a serial #2276 and a 5-pointed
> star maker's mark above the thumbrest. Scott Hirsch (of Windworld Trade
> Names fame) thinks this maker's mark may have been that of August
> Buffet, but an inquiry to Buffet-Crampon makes me doubt it is a Buffet
> clarinet, since they state that all Buffet clarinets would be clearly
> marked
> as such. I've owned this instrument since approximately 1965. My father
> bought it for me, used of course, from a NYC pawn shop.
>
> Any, this leads me (at last) to the keywork question. The rings on this
> clarinet have "edges", they are not rounded, such that each ring has an
> edge which is cleanly parallel to the chimney of the hole. I've never
> seen
> another clarinet with this style keywork, but of course I haven't seen
> all
> *that* many clarinets. Anyway, I was wondering whether anyone on this
> list
> may have seen this style keywork, and if so, do you know what kind of
> clarinet it was?
>
> Also, does anyone know anything about the "EXCELLA" trade name?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Kathy Beatty
>