Klarinet Archive - Posting 000459.txt from 2003/10

From: Jacob Lindsay <jacobmakesnoise@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] "Grade" frustrations, et al.
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 13:53:34 -0400

If you're serious about playing you should get a
professional instrument. Depends on your finances of
course but you can probably get a used Buffet R13 for
1,000 or so. Best is if you've got some good local
shops where you can try out the horn.

Re: wood swelling. This does actually happen. I had
to get the middle joint on my bass clarinet scraped
out b/c this happened. But it also could have been a
case of the barrel just not fitting the horn.

My advice is if you're not happy with the horn you
have then buy a new one rather than spend money on
this one.

When I was studying with my first teacher I started
out on an intermediate horn and after about a year he
took the horn from me, took a long look at it and said
"How much money do you have? Buy a new horn."

--- Ken Wolman <kwolman@-----.com> wrote:
> A seemingly innocuous question: what is the
> difference between (or
> among) a student, intermediate, and professional
> horn? I really have no
> idea. I DO know that what I own now--a so-called
> intermediate
> instrument--is not only more difficult to play than
> the pro horn I used
> to own, but it also has some nasty and potentially
> expensive quirks that
> make me wonder if it's even worthwhile to get it
> fixed.
>
> The instrument is, of course, a Noblet 40. I don't
> know how old it is
> because the serial numbers are not available and
> Leblanc is too
> discourteous to reply and say so. Now, recall that
> this is the same
> instrument that late last winter had the barrel
> stuck to the tenon. I
> was told to keep it regularly greased. I did so and
> have continued to
> do so.
>
> I received a new barrel yesterday: an Accubore
> Standard C-series
> (ostensibly for Leblanc instruments), 66 mm, Bb
> clarinet. The barrel
> had to be forced onto the tenon. Uh-oh. The barrel
> had to be gotten
> off with one of those round rubber jar openers.
> Even recorkgreasing the
> beast didn't help. Uh-oh again.
>
> I called the dealer who sold me the barrel, Weiner
> Music. The
> technician, Mark, told me that I really should have
> ordered a
> Buffet-style barrel. I go almost incoherent:
> Buffet doesn't make
> Noblets, why would I have done that? Then he told
> me to send him the
> whole instrument so he could fit the barrel to the
> clarinet. I have two
> barrels, the original wood one too. "Well, wood
> swells in changes of
> weather." That much? So is he going to file down
> the tenon and recork
> it? That is not free work: yet I was told it won't
> cost me more than
> about $25, the cost of postage and insurance. So I
> get to live without
> a clarinet for however long this takes--I must be
> unique in that I own
> only one.
>
> I case you haven't noticed, yet this is plainly
> infuriating. I am
> sending Mark the clarinet, barrel, and purchase
> paperwork. I'll either
> get my horn back and working or I'll get a refund.
> I'm sorry, but my
> trust level today is sort of low: behind all this I
> smell Total Overhaul
> for probably as much--$275--as I paid on eBay for
> this benighted
> instrument. If that's the case they can keep it and
> sell it to someone
> else who got burned my Musiqueweb.
>
> I want an instrument that WORKS. Is that a
> remarkable request? I used
> to have one that worked, a professional instrument,
> and changes of
> temperature didn't lock the barrel to the joint. I
> don't want to rehash
> why I had to sell it but I did, and this
> "intermediate" horn makes a
> cruddy substitute.
>
> Are they all like this? Did I get a dog or are
> Noblet 40s like this or
> are intermediates like this, regardless of brand?
> If I were to buy a
> Buffet E11 or even E13, would I be inviting someone
> to turn me into a
> piece of wood so I could really get screwed? Can
> you buy ANYTHING on
> eBay (except for what I've sold:-) where you aren't
> guaranteed a
> hose-job? Can you tell I'm as fed up as I've ever
> been with any musical
> instrument I've ever seen?
>
> Ken
> --
> Kenneth Wolman
> Proposal Development Department
> Room SW334
> Sarnoff Corporation
> 609-734-2538
>
>
>
>
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=====
Jacob Lindsay
http://www.bayimproviser.com/artistdetail.asp?artist_id=44

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