Klarinet Archive - Posting 000676.txt from 1999/05

From: HatNYC62@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl]Hans Moennig's solution the Dark Clarinet Tone
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 10:19:45 -0400

In a message dated 5/15/99 4:15:01 AM, klarinet-digest-help@-----.org writes:

<< I guess the question still hasn't been answered to my satisfaction.
Regardless of the manufacturer, a deficient product should be corrected.
Depending upon aftermarket people like Moennig and Brannen to do it is
ludicrous. A company that does this deserves to lose its customer base. I
am nonplussed by the continued loyalty some players show in spite of poorly
made, or even poorly designed instruments. If I was the manufacturer and
realized I was making an instrument that people loved despite a few KNOWN
deficiencies, I would be killing myself trying to get it perfect. I'd then
OWN the market! >>

Whatever. . .a Brannenized R-13 is still very inexpensive, much cheaper than
the top line Leblanc or Selmer, which themselves will need post-purchase
adjustment. Fix those deficencies that are so well 'known' (as Leblanc and
Selmer claim to have done) and you compromise somewhere else. That's why I
don't play Leblanc or Selmer.

There is no such thing as a 'perfect' clarinet. It's impossible. Every
acoustic fine tuning is some kind of compromise. With an R13 the player gets
to make those decisions with a technician. Maybe not as good as ordering a
hand made clarinet and going over all the details with the maker, but much
cheaper. Of course there are things any one individual would change in any
mass-produced product. And some Buffets are awful while others are gems. When
someone else makes a perfect clarinet that satisfies everyone, Buffet will go
out of business.

The R13 is not a poorly made or designed product. One listen to the top
artists who play them will tell you that. Despite the so-called
'improvements' in clarinet design over the last 30 years, I have yet to hear
many players improve on what Marcellus, Wright, Combs, Brody and others were
doing on their Buffets 30 plus years ago.

David Hattner, NYC

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