The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: James
Date: 2006-12-26 04:06
With college looming in the not too distant future, I'm looking to upgrade my clarinet from the E-11 that has served me well in high school to an R-13. I'm very interested in the older models because from what I hear they are actually better instruments than the new ones (if properly taken care of), and seem to be a lot less expensive from the little bit of browsing that I've done. This is a perfect option for someone like me who is looking for a quality instrument on a shoestring budget. Now is where the confusing part begins. A lot of the owners of the instruments that I've looked at have the serial number, but not an exact year of manufacture. When I look up the serial number on Buffet's website, the date of manufacture that it gives me is completely different from what the owner is ballparking the date to be. The owner says that the instrument was made in the mid 60's, and the pictures of it seem to suggest that age as well, but Buffet's website says that it was made in the early 90's. This has happened on almost every instrument that I've tried to look up. I've even had three different results for the same serial number. Needless to say I'm a bit confused. The only thing that I can come up with is that Buffet is recycling serial numbers, which I still find extremely unlikely. Is there any place (preferably online) that I can get a reliable and accurate date for any serial number? Any advice or suggestions will be well appreciated.
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2006-12-26 20:49
Buffet has a serial number search function back up on their site but it has some glitches and is not yet reliable. The list Mark has referred you to is more accurate as far as it goes (1997 for R13's). Ironically, the Buffet site *may* actually be accurate for numbers post 1997, though.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: James
Date: 2006-12-27 01:52
Thank you very much for the website Mark. It's helped a lot.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-12-27 01:56
James wrote:
> Thank you very much for the website Mark. It's helped a lot.
All part of woodwind.org ...
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