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1939 Buffet (?) - uncommon marks

Author: improvedradio
Date: 2013-01-14 23:17

Hello everyone,

i just got a very old buffet clarinet.
it is marked with lots of numbers and letters.

it is like this:

H T

1 1

1946

26433

it is marked like that on all four parts.

maybe someone can help.

Post Edited (2013-01-17 18:29)

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Re: Buffet from 1939 (?)

Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2013-01-15 12:19

That's a curious set of markings. (It's good news that they're the same on all the sections, since the same markings mean you don't have a jumble of bits from different clarinets. Your sections all came from the same instrument.) As your thread title indicates, if 26433 is the serial number, as seems likely, then the clarinet dates from 1939. If 1946 is the serial number, then it dates from 1928 -- but if 1946 is not the serial number, then I've got no idea what the 1946 means.

How clear are these old markings? Is it possible that what you're reading as 1946 is really a set of letters, or a combination of letters and numbers?

Also, could the letters you've read as H T possibly be H P instead? If the marking is H P, a common marking on clarinets from the 1920s and 1930s, then it stands for "High Pitch." That means it's higher-pitch than the modern standard, concert A = 440 Hz, marked as L P on instruments from the 1920s up into the 1940s.

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.

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Re: Buffet from 1939 (?)

Author: Bill
Date: 2013-01-15 13:06

I've stared at the letters/numbers but I can't figure it out. I do think Lelia's right that it's high pitch (HP), though 1939 seems rather late for that. I love your old Selmer moniker, "Radio Improved" (stamped "RI" on old Selmers).

Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)

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Re: Buffet from 1939 (?)

Author: improvedradio
Date: 2013-01-15 13:59

maybe HT are the initials from the guy who built it.

i got some sounds out of it and it is 440hz spot on.

very good intonation and sound (for a horn that needs complete restauration).

it looks exactly like a pre13 clarinet.

the letters and numbers look all original. like the serial. same kind of stamp.

Post Edited (2013-01-15 17:45)

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