Klarinet Archive - Posting 000696.txt from 1998/03

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: re: An Experience Worth Sharing
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 18:21:29 -0500

A long post to the list....delete if you find it does not interest you.

As they said in the movie Splash!......."What a WEEK I've been
having....!"

Aside from missing a mouthpiece refacing opportunity with Richard Hawkins
(but we met over the phone and I got my first mouthpiece facing
assignment.....o boy!) because of the blizzard, I still managed to finish
my plans to travel to Boosey & Hawkes for work on my new Bass Clarinet,
and have some "minor" work done to my Leblanc Basset Horn up in Kenosha,
WI (only 40 minutes north of Boosey! The first part went great! If you
haven't had a chance to visit Boosey & Hawkes in Libertyville (where they
import and distribute literally every Buffet Clarinet to the rest of the
U.S.), members of the list need to go. Wow! I met Phyllis Williams, a
clarinetist and former member of the Air Force Band, who helped me sort
out where to start, who to speak to and made me feel right at home. She
introduced me to Francois Kloc, the new (well....he HAS been here awhile!)
technician from France, and some of the other folks at Boosey.
Now.......six years ago when I was ticked off about a new R-13 cracking
and tried to get something done about it, I got the run-around. Two years
ago, they invited me up to Libertyville to try new clarinets (after my
Prestige Bb cracked), and this time around, was even more fun.

Remember our discussions three or four months back (or was it longer) when
we talked about the new instrument service that Bill Brannen provides in
Evanston, IL? Bill Hausmann had some pretty interesting viewpoints about
the customer should not have to pay additional $ on a new
instrument.....and of course......I argued with him! Well guess what
Bill? I am retracting everyting I said! (ho ho).......can it be true Bill
asks to himself......no, not completely....but, let me explain.

I have always believed the new Buffet clarinets need new instrument
service....that is, they have never worked to their full potential right
out of the box. I have been right on this folks! However, I have always
had to go to an aftermarket service and pay $350 + to get the horn to play
right.....and I have always just accepted it as something I have to do.
Well, no more. I can assure you all, this fellow Francois Kloc is a
MASTER technician. I watched him work on the bass clarinet (yes...he
actually let me watch him.......and he juggled five or six important calls
in between my trials of his work). So much new stuff to tell! First of
all.......did you know that the horns are shipped here and that not all of
the factory specs are cut to complete tolerance? What this means is, when
I play an open G on the bass clarinet and it is flat (along with the
throat Bb), yet the long B is sharp.....I don't have to think that my
goose is cooked and that I just spent $5000 and didn't catch the problems
of the horn. Upon removal of the A key .......the measuring device
(specific to Buffet clarinets mind you) let us know that, of the four
possible measurements (and beyond) that show the minimum tolerance (4),
mine was between 1 and 2 on the tool. Meaning, Francois had room to
undercut the tone hole. Why was there room? Why not just set to
tolerance to begin with??? Everyone has a different playing tolerance, and
what is flat for me may be in tune for someone else.....depending on reed,
mouthpiece, etc..... The point is.....my horn plays much better now. I
will schedule another appointment after having had time to play and
understand the pitch on the horn. I even got a new neck out of
it........Mr. Kloc worked on an exact duplicate of the new neck that came
with the horn, and not only did the one he worked on play better, it was
better in tune. What did all this cost me? Not a dime...........NOTHING!
No more new instrument service if someone of this caliber can schedule me
to work on my new horns. What a great service! Did you know this has
been available in Europe for a long time and just now is available to us?

The bad experience.

The Leblanc Basset Horn had a problem with the low C. I have always had
some difficulty with this horn seating properly when using ONLY the thumb
to play the low C. I took the horn to Brannen when it was new, and, after
paying his fee (a whopping $500), received the horn back. It played great
(except for the low c) and told me the horn had a bad design flaw in it.
He couldn't correct it. I played on it this way for a couple of years -
after all, when I use a pinky on a low E or Eb key, the C is great! But,
now that I am recording Mendelssohn shortly with it, I decided to have
someone look at it. Someone recommended that Leblance look at it, so I
gave them a call. Dave Surber was the Rep. who took my call and assurred
me that they could probably fix the problem. I set this all up one month
ago. I shipped the horn off insured last week, and went to pick it up
today. The tech. had it but, despite my letter describing the problem,
didn't know what he was supposed to do. He tried regulating this, and
adjusting that (things I had already done), and, in short, made it worse.
He nicely offered a repad, but admitted it probably wouldn't help. He
also would have charged me $120 or more for the repad.....even after
admitting that the design wasn't especially good. Frustrated, I got back
in my car and drove.........back to Boosey & Hawkes. Why did I do that?
I only knew one person within a 50 mile radius that could at least give me
some advice. Francois Kloc not only figured out the problem (a design
flaw based on one long key that places stress on one post and moves it out
of position, causing the pads associated with that post/rod to not seat
correctly), he accepted the horn to help me with my problem. He will fill
the hole with the post, reset a new hand-made post (no one has the tools
for the thread designe for Leblanc posts but Leblanc......and they are in
France), and it will once again be a beautiful horn. Not only
that, they loaned me a Buffet basset for the recording session until this
one is ready (Mr. Kloc leaves for France tomorrow......!!). What do I
think about this?

I am not going back to Leblanc again.

So......to Bill Hausmann and the others I argued vehmently with regarding
new instrument service........things are looking up. There is a guy in
town who knows what he is doing (finally), and Boosey & Hawkes is a much
more friendly, interested company that they I recall them being in many a
moon. If you haven't visited, you should.......Libertyville, IL.

Glad I got all that off my chest......hope you aren't all asleep now!

Roger Garrett
IWU