Klarinet Archive - Posting 000329.txt from 1997/11

From: reedman@-----.com
Subj: Bass Clarinets
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 13:14:53 -0500

Roger Garret said in an earlier post:

I'll quote J. Lawrie Bloom (CSO)....."I know of no
Selmer bass clarinet that is as in tune and projects through the orchestra
as well as the Buffet Pretiges currently available."

I could hardly disagree more. Further, It really peeves me when someone
prefers to name drop than provide substantive material based on personal
experience or research.

J. Lawrie Bloom is a great bass clarinetist, but he has offered the same
opinion on Yamaha and Selmer . With the proximity of Leblanc to Chicago
maybe at some point in the future we'll see Mr. Bloom change opinions again.
He has been at various times a Yamaha "Artist", A Selmer advocate and now
Buffet. I don't doubt that Mr. Bloom has a lovely Buffet, but I think a
statement like the above is fairly rash.

That aside, my experience in repairing, evaluating, and extensively
performing on bass clarinet has brought me to the conclusion that the newest
Selmer Bass clarinet (Model 37) is superior to the Buffet in many ways not
the least being a much better tuning schema.

Some players may prefer the Buffet sound (although I don't know why), but
that would be the only reason for making a decision to purchase a Buffet
over a Selmer. The Selmer mechanism in general is superior and much more
positive. The register mechanism in particular is much better and is not so
prone to adjustment problems as the Buffet.

IMO, the greatest fault of the Buffet basses is the "short" twelfths. If you
don't play a lot of bass clarinet this may not bother you. But if you have
ever played, for example, a Wagner Opera on bass clarinet you become acutley
aware of how important the bass clarinet is to the intonation of the entire
woodwind section. Wagner loved the bass clarinet and many, many times he
scores the bass clarinet at the bottom of the section in pp chordal writing.
If you are sitting on a low G (One of the absolute worst notes on the
Buffet),pp and playing the root it is excruciating to try to fight the pitch
down. This fault in the lower Chalumeau alone would be enogh to deter me.

The point is, and I don't think that Mr. Garrett would disagree, DON'T
take someone else's opinion as God's Truth. Do your own research. Try at
least 3 instruments of each variety. Use a good mouthpiece if you have one.
Use a tuner and use a tape recorder to evaluate sound.

Clark W Fobes