Klarinet Archive - Posting 000195.txt from 1998/10

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] earliest dates of R13s
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 20:41:20 -0400

I bought a Buffet grenadilla Bb clarinet this morning that I would identify as
an R13, except that the serial number dates it at 1937. I've been fumbling
through the archives and puzzling over the information. Some people say that
all Buffets with no model name are R13s, while others say that R13s from the
1950s are "early". Someone referred in passing to a 1935 Buffet as an R13. I
couldn't find follow-ups to that comment. Were R13s made as early as my 1937?
(When does that model begin?) The clarinet is marked on all its pieces with
"Buffet Crampon a Paris" (the logo), "Made in France," the serial number and
nothing else.

The case is disgusting, but fortunately I don't have to play it. The tone and
intonation of the instrument sound considerably better than the Conn
intermediate Bb I've been playing. A few weeks ago I bought a Selmer Eb alto
clarinet that's so good that it made me aware of how much I'd grown accustomed
to compensating for the Conn's quirks. This Buffet kicked around in a family
since the seller's father bought it new. The seller, who more or less
inherited it because nobody else in the family wanted it, had "a stone ear"
and never played it. He got it overhauled about 10 years ago in the hope that
one of his kids might learn to play it. Evidently the kids both inherited the
stone ear. Nobody's touched the horn since it was restored. So for $100 I've
bought a reconditioned old Buffet that looks like it hasn't been played much.
The seller couldn't remember who did the reconditioning, but it's a nice job.
(The right hand in the chalumeau is a tad sharp, although that's nothing
compared to what I've been dealing with on the Conn.)

The case smells like something died in there, but I think I can slop it out.
(Maybe a quarter of a stick of dynamite would do the trick.) The mpc looks
like a replacement, a plastic "Geo. M. Bundy #3," although it's better than my
old Conn mpc. I've set out to replace the old one numerous times, but bogged
down in excessive choices. (Entropy at one end and inertia at the other, I
guess. Does this mean I'm getting shorter?) I seem to do better by stumbling
into things.

Thanks for any help with identifying this old horn.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"'You are old, Father William,' the young man said, 'And your hair has become
very white; / And yet you incessantly stand on your head-- / Do you think, at
your age, it is right?' / 'In my youth,' Father William replied to his son, /
'I feared it might injure the brain; / But now that I'm perfectly sure I have
none, / Why, I do it again and again.'"
--Lewis Carroll
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