 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Amanda
Date: 2000-07-05 03:00
Hello. I am a sixteen year old clarinetist. Very shortly, I will be traveling to South Bend, Indiana to purchase a Buffet R-13. I know that this is the clarinet that I want, so don't talk me out of it. :o) Anyway, I have NUMEROUS questions that I hope people will be able to answer...
1. How many should I try?
2. What should I look for when I try them out?
3. Tuning is an issue, so I am told. What should I check for in tuning?
4. I will also be looking into mouthpieces. I am quite interested in Pyne mouthpieces?
5. What do you all know about Vandoren Optimum Ligatures?
6. What are some other things I ought to look for and think about while I am trying the instruments????
THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!
Amanda Rose
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Author: Pam
Date: 2000-07-05 03:30
I recently purchased my new R-13 at the same place I believe. It is awesome (the horn and the store!).
1. I tried 3 and chose one of the three. I guess if none of the first 3 suit you, you can ask for more.
2. How does it fit together? Tight in any of the joints now? It will probably be tighter later. How does it sound tone wise on every note? I immediately rejected one horn because it sounded dead on one note. Is it in tune with itself throughout the registers?
3. Again, is it in tune with itself? Before my current horn, I had (have) an old plastic one that was generally sharp but more so in the upper register. It was very hard to stay in tune with the rest of the orchestra!
4. For now, if you have a decent mouthpiece that you are used to, take it with you as well as some of your own reeds, to try out horns with. I personally can't tell you much about pyne mouthpieces. (Oh, take some of your own music too!)
5. I don't know much about that particular lig.
6. Have fun! My teacher recommended a slow break-in period at first so keep your old horn for a while if you can. You'll need both so you can still practice enough. If you would like the tips he gave me, please e-mail me and I'll send them to you.
I'm sure others will have more advise, but that's my 2 cents!
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Author: Sara
Date: 2000-07-05 03:48
Amanda wrote:
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1. How many should I try?
As many as physically possible but then save the ones you really like and test them all together
2. What should I look for when I try them out?
intonation, straight wood grain, and smoothness of key action
3. Tuning is an issue, so I am told. What should I check for in tuning?
bring a tuner good reed and mouthpiece, I would check open G, and third line B flat
4. I will also be looking into mouthpieces. I am quite interested in Pyne mouthpieces?
try a bunch or get one custom made if you want to spend the cash on one, try Greg smiths or Borecks I've heard both of those are great
5. What do you all know about Vandoren Optimum Ligatures?
I've heard they're good, but as with mouthpieces, try a bunh
6. What are some other things I ought to look for and think about while I am trying the instruments????
Try to be open minded, because when you have your mind set on one thing you might not realize what your missing, unless you try them.
THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!
Amanda Rose
Oh by the way I'm 16 too, and I was going to get an R13 but I wen ahead and got the next level up, the Festival R13.
Good luck! And happy buying, Music is expensive!
Sara
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Author: paul
Date: 2000-07-05 14:05
Music is expensive??? It depends on how you look at it. I'll use numbers that are very close to what I have on my receipts for the calculations.
Here are some calculations that make the point easy to see. Amortize the cost of the instrument over a couple of decades. For instance, take round number of $2000 (pro grade horn) and divide by 20, you get $100/year. Ditto for good mouthpieces and accessories (music stand, gig bag, tuner, etc.) ($300/20=$15/yr). Ditto for most study books and sheet music purchased almost all at once ($200/20=$10/yr). Toss in private lessons for a couple of years and amortize that over a couple of decades, too ($1500/20=$75/yr). An occassional box of reeds, an adjustment (pad reseating, etc.), is par for the course, but rarely expensive (about $20 to $50, depending on the situation). Insurance for amateur use of a pro horn is about $60/yr. The total amortized cost is a about $310 per year, or about $26 per month.
Now, compare this to the cost of other hobbies, and music can be quite a bargain.
So, have fun shopping for your horn. Just keep in mind that this is an investment of a lifetime for most amateur clarinetists. Keep your horn well maintained and make it a point to enjoy creating music with it. Practice, practice, practice. That's where you will see the pay back on your investment.
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Author: Amanda
Date: 2000-07-05 16:14
My brother is an instrument repair tech!!!! He does stuff for me for free and he's very good! (seriously)
Thanks for all the help...
What can any of you tell me about the Festival R-13. Someone told me about it at Jazz Camp, but I haven't heard anything or seen anything on it. Just stuff on the Prestige R-13 which is a little out of my range and doesn't seem much better.
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Author: Sara
Date: 2000-07-05 20:11
The Festival is considered a premium pro grade horn, and it basically has all the same qualities as the prestige but cost less, I think the differences are very minute, I think that the Boosey&Hawks company has some sorta thing about letting only smaller companies sell the Festival so that the mail order companies won't get all the business.I love my festival, I think it has a thicker and mellower tone than the standard R13.
Sara
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-07-05 21:45
Sara wrote:
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I think that the Boosey&Hawks company has some sorta thing about letting only smaller companies sell the Festival so that the mail order companies won't get all the business.
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No - only their top dealers can get it, and it's (normally) limited to non-mailorder. Unless you consider Brook-Mays to be a smaller company ...
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Author: Sara
Date: 2000-07-06 02:19
Well i got mine from this local dealer in Columbia, SC. They were seling them through school, but I don't think there a top dealer I think it was Pecknel Music. But i could be wrong.
Sara
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Author: Paul Lester
Date: 2000-07-06 17:50
Amanda;
If you interested in pricing the Festival via mailorder go to "http://www.youffer's.com"
They sell them straight out of the box for less than $1900.
You will have to get it adjusted after you receive the horn.
They don't adjust the horns before shipping them.
Cheers,
Paul
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Author: paul
Date: 2000-07-07 20:33
I have a Festival. Comparing my horn to 1970s and 1980s vintage R-13s may or may not be a fair comparison, at least as far as I have seen so far. The workmanship on my Festival was clearly better than some of the R-13s I've seen. There was one standout exception that I lusted after. There was this early 1960s pro hand picked beauty of an R-13 that sounded so good. Too bad the clarinet major college student already had it.
While other folks can tell you the technical differences between the Festival and the R-13, it still comes down to your own personal taste and wallet thickness. I couldn't tell the difference in sound playing my Festival right next to better R-13s. I couldn't tell the sound difference from a decent amateur grade recording, either. As far as I could tell, we matched perfectly.
If you get a Festival (or any other clarinet) straight off the shelf, be prepared to be very patient with it. Find a good woodwind tech and a highly competent pro tutor in your area to help you get the horn regulated and behaving itself. It took me about a year of part time hacking as an adult novice to get my Festival fully regulated and well behaved. Blame at least 80% of the behavior problems on me as an adult novice. The other less than 20% was due to slight defects that the Buffet certified tech worked out (bell to joint fit, crooked key pad, etc.), and my pro tutor's patient iterative regulation of the horn to both fit my fingers/hands and to play better in tune. Buffet's techs did a pretty good job getting the horn regulated before they sealed it up for shipping. But between shipping, long term storage on the shelf prior to sale, and other similar factors, the horn needed a good tweaking.
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Author: Joseph
Date: 2000-07-10 04:33
If your going mail-order, check out www.weinermusic.com they have the lowest prices in the country and have a great return and crack policy.
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