Klarinet Archive - Posting 000456.txt from 1998/08

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] A nasty question about Buffet
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 09:36:23 -0400

I've debated several days about writing this, but it is not RUMOR since I
heard what I'm reporting with my own ears. Also the person who said this
did not present it as a big secret but as something that repairmen know
about from common knowledge.

I work near Perry Ritter's repair shop in the mid-50s in Manhattan, and
have been in there on and off to look at and play some of his for-sale used
horns and mouthpieces.

In any case, here is the inflammatory part. He mentioned, without malice,
that if I ever buy a new R13, "make sure you buy extended protection
against cracking." Huh? Ritter explained that the newer R13's are
inferior to the older one in terms of wood quality, and that far too many
of them crack in the joints the first year. He said he stopped carrying
them new a few years ago because if an instrument sat in the case for
awhile, and a customer came in to buy a new horn, the instrument would have
grown a joint crack without ever having been played. He said he stopped
carrying them as new instruments for that reason.

He did not define "new" and "old," so I have no idea how many years back
we're talking about.

This is touchy stuff because Francois Kloc is probably reading this, but I
am reporting back what was told to me in an un-private conversation.

Ken

Kenneth Wolman Information Technology Morgan Stanley Inc.
750 Seventh Avenue New York, NY 212-762-1685
"From the Meadowlands": http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1649
"The extent to which my four-legged kid controls my existence is relegated
to the status of `secret life' most of the time. The average American on
the street just cannot comprehend inter-species parent-child
relationships."--Anonymous

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