 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2000-05-20 14:33
Please pardon me if this has been covered before, but I need a quick response. My old clarinet is a wonderful Buffet Evette which I was told is a "super" or something. I bought it new in 1970 and my daughter glombed on to it about 4 years ago. She complained about how hard it was to play last week just before a concert so I inspected it and found some bad pads. I took it to our best local repairman who quickly reduced it to a non-playing stick of grenadilla wood.
When my daughter took the Evette I got an old Buffet Crampon (R-13?) from around 1953 (ser # 48404) and had it completely re-padded. The intonation is fabuluous, but it is a bit stuffy and not all the notes have wonderful tone.
On Thursday my daughter performed the Cimerosa Oboe Concerto with a friends R-13. It is a great horn, but I remember my Evette having played even better when it was new.
I am about to send both horns off for complete rebuilds to new or better condition. I was planning on sending them across the country (today) to Weiner. Is this a mistake, who can do a top-notch job on these horns? I want them to have the full rich tone and ease of playability I remember. Is the 1952 horn worth messing with? What type of pads should I ask for? Is there really any reason to ask for plating and what type is best?
I want to do this right and only once (more) so if you can help I would appreciate it. I need to get the horns out right away as I only have about 2 months before my daughter needs to take her horn away to college and my orchestra starts up again.
Thank you, Terry
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Author: J. Butler
Date: 2000-05-20 18:41
1) I would go with cork or Gortex pads on the upper joint. I still prefer the bladder on the bottom 4 pads.
2) Plating is cosmetic and unless the shop has the facilities it will take an additional 4 to 6 weeks.
If you do decide to replate, do it in silver. It's worth the extra $45 to $50, especially if you have any thoughts about selling the instrument later.
3) Most shops, mine included, will replace all the needle springs with blue steel springs and will only replace the flat springs if necessary. If you want all the flat springs replaced you probably will have to pay a little extra. I would consider blue vs. berrillyum (sic)springs.
4)Find out what they actually do to the wood. Is the bore polished? What kind of oil is used? Is the clarinet cleaned with a oil soap or similar product? Are the tone holes resurfaced? Is any custom tuning or tweaking of the tone holes performed?
5) Does the shop replace all tenon corks? There is one philosophy to leave them alone if they are tight, and another to go ahead and replace all of them. If you want them all replaced let this be known.
6) Ask them how long the overhaul will take.
J. Butler
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Author: larry
Date: 2000-05-24 13:54
Hey Mark,
Maybe during your down times between composing acid responses to BB postings you could assemble a repairman/women database in the Resources section of the website, similar to the useful teachers database.
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