Klarinet Archive - Posting 000464.txt from 2001/03

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Tale of Woe
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 15:24:17 -0500

A rhetorical question -- what is the most expensive barrel that you can
buy?

Short answer: mine, of course.

Long answer --=20

I have this old Buffet A clarinet that I dearly love, manufactured in
1962. I bought it from the estate of Rachel Welke, who had played in
the Seattle Symphony for a number of years. Because she was a dedicated
Selmer user (sponsored artist?) at the end of her career, it had not
been played very much at all when I bought it in 1992; I got it
virtually "new" although it was 30 years old. I bought it for a
relative pittance, partly because it did not have the original barrel.

Because of some intonation difficulties, and faced with the expense of a
long-need overhaul, I bought a Yamaha 72CS last fall to replace it for
my orchestral work. I'd heard that the Yamaha 72 was a close clone of
the venerable R-13, with some of the improvements subsequently
introduced like the higher register vent etc. The Yamaha is a fine horn
that plays very much in tune with itself.

Well, this weekend I was spiffing up the old Buffet (I planned to lend
it to a student of a friend of mine for their youth symphony). I also
had my performance horns out on the peg -- I practice in the same room.
To test the Buffet, I yanked the mouthpiece and barrel from the Yamaha
and tootled a bit.

Yowza!

When testing the Yamaha for purchase, I compared it against the Buffet
(of course). I had never played the Buffet with the Yamaha barrel at
the time. I don't know what kind of magic pixie dust the Yamaha people
put in the barrel, but it makes the old horn much, much better; corrects
the problems that I had with the throat tones and focuses the tone in
the chalumeau.

. . . now, I had tried a whole bunch of replacement barrels on this old
horn. Obviously, I should have tried more.

So I'm left with an $1,800 replacement barrel -- plus a spare upper &
lower joint with bell, of course.

Sigh. =20

kjf

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