Klarinet Archive - Posting 000776.txt from 1999/05

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl]Hans Moennig's solution the Dark Clarinet Tone
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 01:39:51 -0400

At 12:29 PM 5/16/99 -0500, Roger Garrett wrote:
>You have concluded that if a person doesn't like an instrument and decides
>to have it completely changed - thereby altering the entire design - and
>likes it better, that there was something wrong with the design to begin
>with. This is faulty logic. It doesn't matter if it was Marcellus,
>Bonade, or anybody else who wanted it different. These major changes do
>not mean the horn was a bad horn, a defective horn, or was "far off" what
>the player wanted. Buffet determines what the characteristics of the
>instrument are - and they leave the factory in quite nice shape. That
>someone wants a purple instrument doesn't mean that there is something
>wrong with the instrument as it left the factory.
>
If a player wants the horn -- in your own words -- "completely changed -
thereby altering the entire design," then my question is, "Why did he chose
that instrument in the first place?" Are all the other potential
selections that much worse? If a clarinet needs THAT much fixing, then it
IS a bad horn, and my logic is just fine.

Let me reiterate my position, for those who may think I just have a thing
against Buffet and are rallying to the defense of their favorite brand on
principle: Buffet makes fine instruments. So do several other
manufacturers. But I object to the excessive pressure in the professional
community, especially among teachers, to force students to consider ONLY
the Buffets, because they are the only TRUE Holy Grail of clarinets. I am
also afraid that the Boosey and Hawkes people may be resting on their
laurels, with the help of this pressure. The last R-13 I played (the last
one we had in stock after dropping our Buffet dealership) was an excellent
playing and beautiful sounding instrument -- but only AFTER our repair shop
had fixed several glaring problems with it!

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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