Klarinet Archive - Posting 000697.txt from 2000/12

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Tuning and "after market work"
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 23:37:05 -0500

To add some historical perspective -- musical instrument manufacture was one of
the earliest industries to adopt assembly-line methods, notably in the production
of violins in Austria and South Germany.
There was nothing recent about the *fact* of its prevalence in 1954.
What may be new is the scale of operations, and, probably, the increasing
shortages of decent woods.
Roger S.

In message <002c01c064a1$89ddca60$831efea9@-----.org writes:
> 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

--
Real men DO eat quiche - with raw HTML

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