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Re: Unmarked Buffet Clarinets?

Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2007-02-24 12:43

I see times haven't changed. My grade school band teacher, back in the late 1950s, took kickbacks for pushing Bundy instruments from a local music store that he touted as offering a "special price" to his students. It was a special price, all right: especially high.

He was such an excellent band teacher, and so well-liked personally, that somehow he managed not to get fired, but there was a major stink and the school district put a stop to that arrangement pronto. Bundy clarinets from that period were quite bad (though the more recent ones, now re-named under the Selmer, USA brand, are considerably improved). My dad had suspected a kickback arrangement, had investigated cometitors' prices and had bought me a Conn from a different store. (He remembered Conn from days of yore, although unfortunately, by the time he bought my Conn, C. G. Conn's widow had sold the brand name and that instrument wasn't much good, either (still isn't; I've kept it for nostalgia's sake), but at least it was an honest sale.

Btw, back to unmarked Buffets: People who buy old instruments will sometimes run into wooden clarinets marked with the logo of "C. Fischer, New York." This was a large store that imported clarinets branded with the store name. Some of these clarinets, including both Albert and Boehm models, are Buffets. Fischer catalogues from early in the 20th century advertised that they imported their higher-priced models of Fischer clarinets from Buffet. The way to tell is to compare the metal parts with marked Buffets from the same period (and the way to tell the period is often by the type of case, if the original hasn't been replaced--cases are a whole 'nother arcane subject). The contours of the tenon bands and the shapes of the keys and posts look a little bit different from one clarinet brand to another. Those old C. Fischer clarinets can be well worth buying as good players, even though the lack of the Buffet brand name will keep the price low. It's an excellent way to buy a vintage instrument at a discount price, if the playing quality matters more than the brand name.

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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Post Edited (2007-02-24 12:52)

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Unmarked Buffet Clarinets? new

Cygnus

2007-01-23 18:42