Klarinet Archive - Posting 000454.txt from 2004/09

From: kurtheisig@-----.net
Subj: RE: [kl] re: Buffet 1965 Clarinet
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:31:24 -0400

OK

1975-6 was a strange time for Buffet!!

Prices went through the floor for the following reason.....

In 1975 the retail was $750 for R13's.

The story as I understand it is.....

The distributor tried an unfriendly buy-out of Buffet by storing ahead one years supply and then there was a HUGE price war between them and the owner, Marty Tolchin!!

The price dropped to $700 retail. My buddy Zep Meisner and Chuck and I were buying them for $210 in bulk wholesale!!! (Also many other great stores!!!)

I was selling them for $425 and later $395 and then $375!!!!

(Unlike a famous clarinetist that "claimed" to do set up on them, I WAS! I would work on clarinets by the carton full all day, day after day!)

In 14 months I bought 270 first line Buffet clarinets and saxes!!

I was the 3rd largest customer Buffet had west of the Mississippi.

What a ball! I was selling to the Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, ---Leon Russianoff!!!

I personally picked up an R13Eb, C, Bb, Bb, A, S1Bb---now with a student of mine in Boston---and an S series alto sax, which I later sold for a spare Mk VI . Buffet also presented me with an 150th Anniv. Bb! I purchased an E13Bb too, but I don't remember if that was then or later.

I got to hang out with Joe Allard while selling 35 clarinets in Boston in 5 1/2 weeks.

My father had died in August and I went back to Boston at Christmas to spend a few weeks to make my grandmother feel a bit better. I was staying at my other grandmothers house and had dozens of Buffets in her kitchen where I set them up. It gave her a real thrill to see what her grandson did for work and to have people like Leon Russianoff calling her house.

It was great hearing all these really fine players in Boston trying out clarinets---EVERY DAY!!!!

I personally tried out over 120 Bb's in a few months!! Also I had this pick of a HUGE litter for myself on each of those clarinets, except the C which was the only one and is a fantastic horn!

There are so many stories from that year!!! Some of them, alas, should not be told.....some people like to keep their dirty behavior secret!

BUT...

Here IS a story I have kept quiet lo these many years.............

We all have heard how clarinets have to made from aged wood...

The story from inside the company was that Tolchin, in order to try to save the company, and meet his huge notes, finally reached into the supplies and used some wood that was not that aged???? True--false????? That would be the clarinets in the 150,000 serial number range??? Normal crackage was in the 2 12% range. From this "green?" wood we only got 1 1/2%........ Many of you know that that particular number range were some of the finest Buffets ever made. So---let the mystery rise!!!!! Was that wood green? Why was the crackage rate lower? (at least in my store.---we had a total of 3!) Green wood doesn't make as good a clarinet---yet that serial number range is especially good......

Were they green??????

OH---official retail for the Bb was $750 in early 1975-----$700 in 1976!

Kurt Heisig

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Fay <kevinfay@-----.com>
Sent: Sep 25, 2004 11:03 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] re: Buffet 1965 Clarinet

D. Blumberg posted:

<<<Volume Dealer Price???? No - I bought my first R-13 Buffet in 1977 and
the cost was $575 I paid at Chuck Levins Washington Music Store. The price
of $500 in 1965 can't possibly be right. Should be more like $375-400 tops
and that's what I paid so maybe even less ($350). I remember the price of
mine back then as I paid for it cutting lawns as an 8th grader.>>>

David - you didn't get a deal. My 1st R-13 was purchased in 1977 as well,
for $325 from Sam Ash (back when they sold such things). Friends were
buying S-1s on special from Zeps for $280, which is likely the discount
price at the time. I held out for the R-13 and paid more for it.

kjf

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