Klarinet Archive - Posting 000783.txt from 1997/11

From: "David S. Naden" <dnaden@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Schreiber and more!
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 13:42:40 -0500

Prof. Galper--

Can you verify that Schreiber owns Buffet. It was my understanding that
Boosey and Hawkes owns both Buffet and Schreiber.

TIA

David S. Naden

avrahm galper wrote:

> Schreiber and more
> Recently a member of the list asked about the clarinets that Schreiber
> make.
> I asked one of my local dealer friends and here is the information I
> received: Schreiber makes B12, E11 and E12.
> The B12 is a plastic clarinet. The other two are made of wood that is
> supplied to Schreiber by Buffet.
> The key work is Schreiber.
> The E13 is a regular Buffet that didn't make the grade for some reason.
> It's not a Schreiber instrument.
> For those that didn't know: Schreiber owns Buffet.
> Boosey and Hawkes own Schreiber.
> And until recently, Carl Fischer owned Boosey and Hawkes,
> The latest story I heard was that Carl Fischer sold Boosey and Hawkes.
> The buyer was supposedly Selmer, Indiana. (which is separate from
> Selmer, Paris.)
> So there!
> A few years ago I was privileged to be shown around the Buffet factory
> and see some of the mechanized operations going on there.
> 24 hours a day! Automatic machines cutting parts of keys (that are
> later soldered together). Cutting wood, drilling, putting in the holes,
> holes for the posts etc. The posts are put in by hand since a machine
> wouldn't know the tolerance of the wood.
> A continuous operation 24 hours a day!
> Manual labor comes in at a later stage. For instance, the fine drilling
> of the bore is done by hand with special drills,( carefully guarded.)
> Yona Ettlinger, who was a household guest at Buffet, told me that they
> have certain drills that they use in a certain sequence. That is why
> it's hard to copy them, no matter how carefully measured the clarinets
> are by someone else.
> There are other tricks of the trade, he told me. They can pass by a
> whole case of joints, and by tapping on any one of them, they can tell
> which is a good joint.
> Reminds one of what Carl Baermann said in his chapter on reed making,
> that if one taps on a joint of cane and it has a ring to it, most likely
> it's a good piece of cane.
> Ettlinger told me that he was quite friendly with Robert Carree. He was
> an engineer. Didn't play a note of clarinet. But knew how to calculate
> the bore etc.
>
> Should I learn engineering?
>
> Avrahm Galper