Klarinet Archive - Posting 000194.txt from 1998/07

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Buffet Eb's
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 12:05:31 -0400

One reason would be to save money.

I have been an inveterate horse trader--bought and sold a fair number of
instruments over the years. In general, I have found that it is often a
better deal to get a used instrument and put some money into it than to hunt
for the "right" new horn. If your preference is for old horns--say,
Buescher True-tone altos that have not been made in 60 years--then you also
have no choice.

What it basically comes down to is that (IMHO) most horns of the same basic
design don't come out of the box in great shape anyway. Much of the
variability between new horns is not imperfections in the bore--the
manufacturing tolerances of the factory really are too good for that--but
key and pad adjustment, which is basically minor tweaking for a good
technician. All of my clarinets have cork pads in the top joint; it's the
first thing I have done. It would be silly for me to reject a horn because
the skin pads sit too close to the tone hole when I going to get the fixed
anyway.

Moving the register key is not some new-fangled magic. The manufacturers
have been debating moving it closer to the mouthpiece (making the 12ths
better in tune but hurting the tone of the throat Bb) or keeping it low
(giving a nice throat Bb but making the left-hand clarion notes sharp) for
years. Different models of Buffet are marketed today where that is the
basic design difference--R-13 low, Festival has the higher placement.
Indeed, placement of the register key is the primary design difference
between the Leblanc Infinite and the Eternite/Concerto/Opus.

On Eb especially (I have found), other considerations come into play. As I
mentioned in another post, my Eb plays much better in tune with a Hite
mouthpiece than with the others I have. (David Hite uses this as a selling
point in his website--it's not BS, his Eb mouthpiece is really better in
tune, at least for me). Switching mouthpieces is much cheaper than passing
up the good used horn.

kjf

-----Original Message-----
From: CmdrHerel@-----.com]
Subject: Re: [kl] Re: Buffet Eb's

In a message dated 98-07-08 08:22:27 EDT, bcatch@-----.au writes:

<< I'd be interested to know if the instrument could be adjusted. >>

Again, my question is, why buy a horn that is already out of tune and then
have work done on it? Why not just keep shopping until you find one that
starts out at least in tune?

Now if you have a horn already that is out of tune, then by all means
investigate having work done on it. I had to do that with my A about five
years ago and ended up with a great horn.

But to purchase an out of tune horn in the hopes of finding an amazing guru
to
fix it? Not me!

Teri Herel.

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