Klarinet Archive - Posting 000677.txt from 2000/12

From: "Clark W Fobes" <reedman@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Tuning and "after market work"
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:10:50 -0500

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I was a Buffet dealer for about seven years and I never played an =
instrument from the factory that was properly set up.

The problem is not that the French are not good craftsman, the problem =
comes from the pressure to produce so many instruments in such a limited =
amount of time. The automation of some of the most intricate work (tone =
hole shape) may have created a consistency, but little of the "art" of =
instrument making is seen in modern day instruments.

Here is an interestin excerpt from "The Clarinet" by F. Geoffrey Rendall =
published in 1954:

"...Is craftsmanship dead? Not dead, perhaps, but certainly moribund. =
Modern trends and modern economies are all against the small maker with =
his stock of acquired experience and empirical methods. Hand work and =
simple tools have been replaced almost entirely by precision machinery =
and repetition work. The intuition of the old maker, the sixth sense, so =
necessary to perfect results, now comes a bad second to the blue-print =
of the modern operative. The results so far are not encouraging. There =
is little to suggest that the assembly line can endow the instrument it =
produces with a soul. The only hope for a rather grim future would seem =
to lie in the growth of a body of improvers and finishers. These men, =
craftsmen in their own right, would not make an instrument through out, =
but would procure the rough models from the factory and adapt them for =
the exacting needs of the soloist and orchestral musician by judicious =
refitting, regulation and tuning."

A pretty accurate forecast from 1954. Even though one might wish that =
Buffet and others would make a better finished clarinet, I think it is =
preferable to have these "diamonds in the rough" at a reasonable price =
and pay a good craftsman to finish it to your specific needs.

The trick is to know how to choose an instrument with potential and to =
know which flaws are inherent and which can be corrected.

There is some information about this in my previously mentioned article: =
"Tuning The Clarinet" at my web site.

Clark W Fobes

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