Klarinet Archive - Posting 000840.txt from 1999/05

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl]Hans Moennig's solution the Dark Clarinet Tone
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 03:19:19 -0400

On Mon, 17 May 1999, Bill Hausmann wrote:
> Rather than add length on one end of a clarinet, shorten the other end, and
> move and enlarge the tone holes, wouldn't it be easier to find another
> mouthpiece? (Yes, I know, it was an extreme case.)

Rather than speculate on what the person might have been thinking, why
don't you ask people who have done it and report back to us?

> You are entitled to tweak all you want, but redesigning is a bit extreme.
> Regardless of the relative prices of instruments, if I pay $1600 for what
> is advertised as and generally regarded to be a professional-grade
> instrument, I expect it to behave like one without excessive fiddling
> around, or I will take my money elsewhere.

You can do whatever you want Bill. But just because someone has
customization work done and just because you can't get the horn to play in
tune or blow the way you want doesn't make the horn defective.

> I have also said that Buffet is certainly ONE OF the top clarinet makers,
> and that the last R-13 I played sounded and played beautifully. The
> specific alleged design flaws, like the register key misplacement, came
> from other posters, not me.

You simply took that information and made an enormous leap to a faulty
conclusion. So?

> If the instruments are deliberately left borderline unfinished ("tolerances
> left a bit short"), with the assumption that final on-the-spot adjustments
> like a bit of undercutting are INTENDED and EXPECTED to be made to fit them
> to the purchaser, at no additional cost, including transportation, so be
> it. In fact, such attention to the customer would make a great sales tool.
> (M. Kloc will be a busy man, though!) I think we have been here before,
> but I get the impression that, while some of the pros know this, most
> amateurs do not realize that such service is available (and admittedly, may
> not benefit from it, but the offer should still be CLEARLY made to ALL
> buyers).

All they have to do is read the literature that comes with the instrument
Bill. Do you know that they include this information with the new
instruments?

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director - Concert Band, Symphonic Winds & Titan Band
Advisor - Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University

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