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That Bloody Buffet F#/C# Spring ...

Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-09-03 21:06
Attachment: buffetc#spring 001.JPG (688k)
Attachment: buffetc#spring 002.JPG (70k)

Having recently been working on several Buffet RC Prestige clarinets and encountered and dealt with the problem with their wobbly middle tenons, the other frontier yet to be dealt with is that ridiculous manner in which they spring the F#/C# key.

The spring is mounted on the key instead of in the pillar and the spring tip engages against the side of a slot milled into the joint, so it will dig into the wood over time. Also the spring they use is difficult to balance right to get a good positive feel - it's either too weak so the pad rebounds against the tonehole or too heavy making the action sluggish.

So I took it on myself last month to literally turn things around here - I turned the spring fixture into a spring cradle by cutting it in half both in width and length which turned it into a spring catch (as it's now C-shaped instead of O-shaped in cross section) and drilled a 0.9mm hole into the lower F#/C# pillar to fit a 0.9mm (.035" or No.4 SWG) spring in there which is also a considerably longer spring by around 10mm compared to the original.

The underside of the F#/C# key barrel and cup arm will need to be ground or filed a bit to make good clearance for the spring and the top side of the pillar anchor can also be ground t form a hollow and the screw head filed flat just to be certain the spring doesn't foul when in operation.

It's a relatively simple operation that any woodwind repairer can do with basic tools - so simple that it's any wonder why Buffet can't do this when most other makers mount the F#/C# spring in this way.

See attachments so you can see what I'm on about.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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