 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clare
Date: 2000-08-04 22:20
I have a buescher aristocrat clarinet which I recently bought from a friend. Does anyone have any information on this make, how old it is etc? I seems quite hard to play but I think it probably needs repadding. Thanks
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-08-04 22:50
If it seems difficult to play, it is most likely leaking. That could be pads, corks, weak springs, bent keys, or any combination thereof. All these are easily fixed.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-08-05 00:58
I agree with Dee, it should play easily. Buescher made good insts for years, my first sax was a B, back in the dark ages! Likely Mark C can date when their name disappeared, I'd guess about 1960, merger with Conn?? Their quality horns still show up on EBAY etc. Have it worked on. Don
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-08-05 01:09
Don Berger wrote:
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Likely Mark C can date when their name disappeared,
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The New Langwill only dates companies up to the mid fifties.
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Author: J. Butler
Date: 2000-08-05 12:06
Buescher was taken over by Selmer in the early 60's. They still marketed the Buescher name for a few years after the take over. I think the Buescher name finally disappeared in the late 60's or early 70's. The Bundy sax was modeled after the Buescher Aritocrat alto after the take over. As far as the clarinets go, Selmer marketed the Buescher 400 and Buescher Aristocrat. These were essentially the same as the Signet and Bundy lines with the 400 being identical to the Signet and the Aritocrat being a Bundy. Now then, it sort of gets a little complicated because there were several model changes. Wood and plastic Bundy/Aristocrats were made as well as wood and plastic Signets/400's.
J. Butler
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-08-05 23:18
If you copy down the serial number, you can find out the approximate age of the clarinet by using the Buescher serial number list on Lars Kirmser's Music Trader site:
http://www.musictrader.buescher.html
The age is important, because if the serial number is after 381,000, then your Aristocrat was made after Selmer bought out Buescher. In effect, Buescher then became a Selmer student brand. By the time Selmer bought out the company, Buescher had already downgraded the Aristocrat from its pro model to a step-up model, although I'm not sure exactly when this transition took place. Buescher was hurting after WWII and in general the pre-WWII instruments are better IMHO, although I'm basing that opinion mainly on saxophones (which also came in an Aristocrat model).
The style of the clarinet also matters. There were three grades of Aristocrat once it became a student instrument: the most expensive was all wood. The middle grade had wooden key sections, with plastic bell and barrel. The all-plastic Aristocrat was the low end of the line. If you have a plastic or partially-plastic Aristocrat, then it's a student grade instrument, even if the serial number places it in that intermediate period of serial numbers between WWII and 1963.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-08-05 23:34
Lelia wrote:
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If you copy down the serial number, you can find out the approximate age of the clarinet by using the Buescher serial number list on Lars Kirmser's Music Trader site:
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C'mon Lelia, you know that you never have to leave Sneezy for serial numbers :^) They're in the Equipment section.
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-08-06 21:23
Mark Charette wrote:
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C'mon Lelia, you know that you never have to leave Sneezy for serial numbers :^) They're in the Equipment section.
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Didn't realize you had the Buescher numbers! That's great. Thanks for the correction. We don't have to leave Sneezy very often for *any* information about the clarinet, come to think of it.... Thank you for that, too!
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