 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sauce
Date: 2012-12-16 04:38
Hello, i'm new here, i have been playing since i was 5 on this clarinet, i am now 25 and don't play... officially. but i did buy a different clarinet recently, a buffet and really liking the sound.
ok so my parents bought this clarinet before i was born! so it over 25 years old, it says Luxus, Amati Kraslice, Made in Czechoslovakia, serial number is 800895, and its wood, i've been on their website, but can't find it exactly, i have the extra key that i never used for the left hand, its for lower register G# and higher register D#
here are a couple of pictures, what do you guys think? what is it worth?
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t401/Audi-medic/PC100053_zps1d0c49c1.jpg
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t401/Audi-medic/PC100054_zpsa5125384.jpg
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-12-16 10:35
The "Luxus" models are the predecessors of the modern 6xx series, but by today's standards they're more in their 3xx range.
Amatis have a somewhat bad rap for the quality of their instruments made in the "iron curtain" age. (They have quite a bit improved in the last years, though)
Once they're overhauled and fitted with a good mouthpiece, they have quite a good intonation and a nice sound. The wood is good, and they're built like tanks. Sure good enough for everyday use, or to pass on to a student.
Considering their reputation, their "use value" is quite a bit higher than their "commercial value".
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Ben
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Author: sauce
Date: 2012-12-17 03:59
so what do you think, if i give it for a complete overhaul, and with one of my mouth pieces (B45 or 5RV), how much would it be worth?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-12-17 08:26
The extra ring on the top joint for LH finger 3 is for playing Eb and Bb with the forked fingering (xox|ooo) - it's generally called 'forked Bb' or 'forked Bb mechanism' and is a very useful gadget to have.
It's rarely ever fitted to clarinets nowadays - only the handmade German Boehm systems seem to offer it or the Italian makers, but none of the big names offer it anymore. Amati are one of the few makers offering the extra mechanisms.
It saves using the side Eb/Bb key, especially when playing C-Eb or G-Bb as you just lift LH finger 2 instead of lifting LH3 and using the side Eb/Bb key. You can also do C#-D#/Db-Eb and G#-A#/Ab-Bb trills by fingering the C#/Db or G#/Ab and trilling with LH finger 2.
Older Amatis such as these don't hold much resale value, but if you enjoy playing it, then it's worth more to you.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-12-17 14:51
> so what do you think, if i give it for a complete overhaul, and with one of my
> mouth pieces (B45 or 5RV), how much would it be worth?
Maybe $50 more than without an overhaul. Unless you're doing it yourself and for your pleasure, having someone else do the work in order to get a higher selling price is quite an illusion.
I've sold several of these Amatis in the past (where I did the (reasonably) refurb myself), and they got somewhere between $150 and $350, depending on model and features, type of case etc. But you can't compare our local marketplace with That Online Auction Whose Name I Constantly Manage To Forget.
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Ben
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Author: sauce
Date: 2012-12-17 18:41
ok, thanks alot guys, some very helpful advice here, i wasn't expecting much anyway, a few years back i bought a Buffet C12 and it sounds GREAT compared to the amati, might just sell it to clean up storage,
its interesting though, my parents mentioned buying this in eastern europe for almost the same amount as a car 25 years back, and now its only worth $150. the value depreciation is crazy,
thanks again for the help,
Steve
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-12-17 19:03
sauce wrote:
> its interesting though, my parents mentioned buying this in
> eastern europe for almost the same amount as a car 25 years
> back, and now its only worth $150. the value depreciation is
> crazy,
Sadly this is par for the course. Ones that were made by Selmer Paris or Buffet Crampon generally command fairly good resale prices but pretty much everything else will sell for pennies on the dollar. That's a good thing if you are a player trying to get a good instrument on a budget but not so good if you are trying to sell an instrument.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-12-17 20:02
> it's interesting though, my parents mentioned buying this in
> eastern europe for almost the same amount as a car 25 years
> back, and now its only worth $150.
That makes perfect sense to me. If your parents had bought a Trabant car in Eastern Europe back then, you'd have to PAY someone $150 to take it away today. In comparison the clarinet is a fine investment. And the clarinet puts out a heck of a lot less smoke.
(For those who aren't familiar with Trabants, they were East German automobiles that had a 2-stroke engine that put out clouds of blue smoke, and their bodies were made of a non-biodegradable sort of plastic composite that can't be recycled).
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-12-17 21:32
Speaking of these Amatis - I still have a Full-Boehm "Special" (dunno how it compares to the "Luxus") which is a fine player but people seem to avoid it like it had warts all over it. So I just keep it, one day it'll come in handy.
What's remarkable with these old Amatis is how on earth could they get such fine wood for these instruments back then? I'm always impressed how even and finely-grained their wood is, compared to what we're supposed to play on these days.
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Ben
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-12-17 21:51
Ben, I believe it's possible that your Amati full-Boehm was been made using leftover (confiscated?) Kohlert tooling --- when I inspected someone else's full-Boehm Amati several years ago I noticed that the keywork was remarkably similar (shall we say "identical"?) to that of the pre-WWII Kohlert-Graslitz full-Boehm I owned at that time. Recall that just after WWII, the (then) Czechoslovakian government took over the Kohlert factory while the workers (some of them, at least) fled to Winnenden, Germany where they restarted the Kohlert concern. So, as in the saxophone world, the early Amati instruments are suspiciously "Kohlert-like". With the much lower production quantities for a full-Boehm clarinet than for the standard type, Amati may have never had the need to replace the original Kohlert tooling. Again, this is just speculation on my part.
If things actually happened thusly, it might explain why your Amati plays so well.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-12-17 21:58
Have to admit I liken the old Communist-era Amati instrumens to Skoda Estelles and B&S instruments to Trabants.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-12-17 22:08
Yeah, the tooling may be one thing, but I am sure they didn't get their timber off the tundra in Semipalatinsk or Yakutsk. How they managed to procure really good blackwood still remains a mystery. (Maybe their Russian brethren who happened to work as defense consultants in Africa occasionally traded wood for Vodka)
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Ben
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