Author: Kalashnikirby
Date: 2017-12-17 03:35
Sorry, I should've clarified: While the wood needs to be dried before being processed, or as Yamaha puts it
"Both natural drying and kiln drying are used", kiln drying speeds up this process significantly. I should've said: It's in a kiln as soon as possible, unlike completely naturally aged wood - some makers even have billets that are 25 years old. My knowledge about when exactly the wood is processed into billets and how long they are stored before production is too small, but IME "natural" wood makes a better clarinet, though I cannot determine why.
It's relatively easy to discern the wood qualities among Buffets, the Prestige series feature the better, unstained wood, while everything below is stained, mostly to cover up imperfections. One could still select from a number of RC clarinets and pick one of a relatively good quality, but they certainly won't waste their finest billets on these.
Some of these statements are suppositions, as Buffet is rather secretive about how the wood was selected and processed for each model, but I'm pretty sure that kiln-drying and staining are no marks of quality.
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