Klarinet Archive - Posting 000872.txt from 1997/11

From: Dirk Kussin <dirk@-----.de>
Subj: Re: Schreiber and more!
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 05:28:58 -0500

avrahm> Schreiber and more Recently a member of the list asked about
avrahm> the clarinets that Schreiber make. I asked one of my local
avrahm> dealer friends and here is the information I received:
avrahm> Schreiber makes B12, E11 and E12. The B12 is a plastic
avrahm> clarinet. The other two are made of wood that is supplied to
avrahm> Schreiber by Buffet. The key work is Schreiber. The E13 is a
avrahm> regular Buffet that didn't make the grade for some reason.
avrahm> It's not a Schreiber instrument. For those that didn't know:
avrahm> Schreiber owns Buffet. Boosey and Hawkes own Schreiber. And

I don't believe that Schreiber owns Buffet. I think Schreiber and
Buffet are part of Boosey and Hawkes.

Schreiber seems to be the agency of Buffet in Germany. If will I order
a clarinet from my local dealer he will order from Schreiber. Also, if
I want to choose a high quality instrument from many, my dealer will
send me to Schreiber where I can test several instruments.

Schreiber produces also German (Oehler) system clarinets and
bassons. If you want to know which products precisely I can find out.

avrahm> until recently, Carl Fischer owned Boosey and Hawkes, The
avrahm> latest story I heard was that Carl Fischer sold Boosey and
avrahm> Hawkes. The buyer was supposedly Selmer, Indiana. (which is
avrahm> separate from Selmer, Paris.) So there! A few years ago I
avrahm> was privileged to be shown around the Buffet factory and see
avrahm> some of the mechanized operations going on there. 24 hours a
avrahm> day! Automatic machines cutting parts of keys (that are later
avrahm> soldered together). Cutting wood, drilling, putting in the
avrahm> holes, holes for the posts etc. The posts are put in by hand
avrahm> since a machine wouldn't know the tolerance of the wood. A
avrahm> continuous operation 24 hours a day! Manual labor comes in at
avrahm> a later stage. For instance, the fine drilling of the bore is
avrahm> done by hand with special drills,( carefully guarded.) Yona
avrahm> Ettlinger, who was a household guest at Buffet, told me that
avrahm> they have certain drills that they use in a certain
avrahm> sequence. That is why it's hard to copy them, no matter how
avrahm> carefully measured the clarinets are by someone else. There
avrahm> are other tricks of the trade, he told me. They can pass by a
avrahm> whole case of joints, and by tapping on any one of them, they
avrahm> can tell which is a good joint. Reminds one of what Carl
avrahm> Baermann said in his chapter on reed making, that if one taps
avrahm> on a joint of cane and it has a ring to it, most likely it's a
avrahm> good piece of cane. Ettlinger told me that he was quite
avrahm> friendly with Robert Carree. He was an engineer. Didn't play a

Which clarinets had he designed, and when? Obiously the RC. Also the
R-13?

avrahm> note of clarinet. But knew how to calculate the bore etc.

So, can one say the Buffet clarinets are made by hand? My teacher told
me that Schreiber made advertisment where they show their machines
(workbenches etc.) and said that each of their clarinets sound the
same. They seem to be proud of this fact.

Dirk

--
Dirk Kussin dirk@-----.de
Fachbereich 17 Mathematik Raum D2.323
Universitdt-GH Paderborn Tel. (+49) (5251) 60-2636
D-33095 Paderborn --------- http://www-math.uni-paderborn.de/~dirk/