 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: JerryForsyth
Date: 2012-05-15 10:22
First, thanks to all of you who have been so much help to me in my quest to learn the clarinet. Now approaching the two-year mark I can currently play about thirty songs that are fairly easy. Begin the Beguine, What a Difference a Day Makes, Stranger on the Shore, Body and Soul, etc. So I am no concert player but I have a great time playing for my wife who is also now considering taking up the clarinet. We are both 65, newly retired, and enjoying the music!
Now, my question for you. I have two Buffet horns, a B12 and an R13. I play mostly the B12 because I can take it to the front porch and play without having to worry about it cracking or anything. I do nothing to maintain the keys on the B12 but they have stayed bright and shiny for over a year now with constant 4-6 hour a day playing.
The R 13 stays in the case most of the time and I always wipe it down very well after playing. But the keys tarnish very quickly after each yearly maintenance session. Within 90 days those keys are dull and cloudy-looking.
Why? Are they both not nickel-plated? Has a technician in the past (I bought the horn on Ebay, used) coated the B12 with something to avoid the effects of my fingers on the keys? Whatever it is I would like to do the same thing to the keys on my R 13. Are the keys maybe stainless steel or some other material? I am certain they are Buffet keys. They appear to the naked eye to be the same as on the R 13.
Anybody got a clue?
Thanks in advance and thanks again for helping me to learn to play. This site is invaluable. And you guys are priceless for someone with no teacher within reach. Your info is fantastic!
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-05-15 10:53
Jerry -
Your B12 has nickel-plated keys, which don't tarnish.
Older R13s had unplated keys made of German silver, an alloy of copper, nickel and sometimes zinc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_silver. There's no silver in the alloy, but it polishes up to a silver sheen. It tarnishes fairly quickly and, in a different reaction, is eaten into by acidic sweat.
Newer R13s have keys made of (I think) German silver plated with copper and then with nickel or silver.
Nickel plating is quite slippery -- too much for my taste -- and many people are allergic to it. Silver plating (and German silver) are more comfortable for me. However, when they're polished up bright, they too are slippery. I prefer well-tarnished German silver. I hope the audience comes to hear me play, not to look at how shiny my keys are. (A saxophonist friend got a superlative Selmer Mark VI soprano for a song when the former owner wanted something shinier.)
Ken Shaw
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2012-05-15 17:57
What is the serial number of your R13? Unless it's below about 100,000 (early 1960s), the keys will be plated. If they were silver, it's possible they could tarnish quickly - either from reaction to your skin, or sometimes from the material of the case you store it in. But this is probably just surface tarnish, and I imagine they would polish up as good as new. Personally, I much prefer silver plate to nickel: as mentioned above, nickel is slippery; also, because nickel is a harder metal than silver, nickel plating is normally applied much more thinly, so it wears through faster, leaving a permanent blemish on the key that you can't polish out; and silver certainly looks nicer, once any tarnish is polished away.
In any case, I'm afraid you don't have the option of putting a set of B12 keys on your R13, as they are a different shape in some cases. The bridge mechanism between top and bottom joints in particular is much more like the vintage pre-R13 instruments. I was able to take advantage of this recently in restoring a 1949 Buffet that had some keywork missing: a modern R13 substitute wouldn't have worked, but a B12 key was fine.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-05-15 19:42
In some cases, nickel plate will develop a bloom on the surface which can be wiped off with a cloth. I’m not sure why this can happen on one clarinet and not the next one even they may both be from the same factory, but it’s just one of those things. I’ve seen two identical clarinets of the same age, both with nickel plate and one of them is still bright whereas the other has turned grey.
I doubt there was any kind of anti-tarnish coating applied to the B12’s keys being that it’s a beginner model (the B12 isn’t made by Buffet themselves, but is made for Buffet by Schreiber in Germany). The R13 is more likely to have some kind of anti-tarnish coating applied during the plating process, but I still doubt it is ever done as that’s more likely to be applied to keys that are silver plated.
Another factor could be the reaction between the nickel and the case your R13 is kept in - I bought an R13 case for my then recently silver plated R13 Eb clarinet and the keys have tarnished black. I had one of my Selmers replated at the same time by the same plating company and that one is kept in a Yamaha case and the keys haven’t tarnished anywhere nearly as badly as the Eb, so there’s most likely something in the case that causes keys to tarnish. It could be the dye in the fabric, the fabric itself, the foam in the lid cushion, the glue used to stick the fabric down with, the plastic used for the case inner tray, the vinyl the case is covered in, the glue used to glue the case together or something else I’ve forgotten to mention.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: JerryForsyth
Date: 2012-05-16 16:01
My serial number is 607529. I called Jacksonville and they said it was made in 2010. I am not concerned about how shiny the keys are. I just want to make certain that I am not neglecting a maintenance item of which I am unaware.
Thanks to all of you for your help.
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