 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2018-01-28 02:22
In a two part interview with Jose-Daniel Touroude, key Buffet clarinet designers and testers discuss the history of the Buffet-Crampon clarinet and provide the rationale behind each of the modern Buffet clarinet designs up through the Divine. This is the most informative discussion of its kind I have seen, and though the original is in French, the auto translate feature is fairly readable. The link below starts with part two but an option is given at the beginning of the interview to link to part I on the earlier history of the Buffet clarinet.
I found the opinions and views of Michel Arringnon, Maurice Vallet, Daniel Gautier, Eric Baret, and Jerome Perrod provocatively different from the usual account of Buffet one hears in the US. It would be great if their conversation could be continued to cover the Tradition, the Legende and the recent boxwood prototypes. Part 1 does discuss the BC20 clarinet which was the predecessor of both the Tradition and the Legende in bore taper.
Part 1 is "Buffet Crampon: The Heart of the Clarinet, an Interview with Michel Arrignon, Eric Baret, Daniel Gautier, and Maurice Vallet.
Part 2 is "The Current Buffet Clarinets,: Inverviews with Arrignon, Vallet, Gautier, Baret, and Perrod."
Here's Part 2 (with a link to part 1 at the beginning of the text):
http://rp-archivesmusiquefacteurs.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/2eme-partie-les-clarinettes-actuelles.html.
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Post Edited (2018-01-28 19:57)
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2018-01-28 07:22
Fantastic stuff, thanks! And thank you Google Translator for the "innovation of posterior clarinets!"
Some discussion of the Tradition (and subsequent Légende) would have been nice. After decades of only two basic bore designs, it's a pretty radical departure, and seemingly a successful one. 70,000 instruments from 700 employees means the average employee cranks out a clarinet ever 3.5 days. Glad I don't have to manage something like that!
Post Edited (2018-01-28 08:39)
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Author: Klose ★2017
Date: 2018-01-28 13:08
It is surprising that people from Buffet admit that German clarinets sound better...
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2018-01-28 13:11
Some discussion and their reasoning on why they're using those crap point screws with hardly any thread, that method of springing the F#/C# key, not relocating the thumbrest base higher up the joint, wavy tenon slots, razor sharp tonehole crowns, cheap peel'n'stick foam key 'corks' and unreinforced nylon pins would be good.
While these things may be done for convenience, they can also cause a lot of inconvenience.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: gatto
Date: 2018-02-01 14:15
In the first mentioned articles it is said several times, that the RC (and RC Prestige?) is very heavy. Are they heavier than other Buffet models? If so, then why? Is their wood thicker walled?
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2018-02-01 15:14
Regarding weights, here are some Bb's (including barrel but not mp):
1979 RC: 748g
1982 R13: 749g
2010 RC Prestige: 784g
So the RC clearly wasn't heavier last Century. The earlier instruments lack the extra LH key, of course, and if you took that off then probably the Prestige would weigh around 750g, the same as the others. So that "heavy" statement seems wrong - more concerning than other errors (RC introduced in 1985) that could just be typos by the journalist. Maybe the auto-translation failed? It seems to have had fun with Robert Carree on occasion.
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Author: gatto
Date: 2018-02-01 17:21
I can confirm the weight (784g) of my RC Prestige B-flat from 1998 (built in 1996). My recent RC Prestige A weights 826g. Using ICON barrel and bell, things become lighter up to 40g.
Would be nice to have a list of weights with many B-flat clarinets (incl. barrel and bell, but no mouthpiece).
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2018-02-01 17:38
Yes, good old "Robert Square." Just a few of the revelations are that Buffet's recognition of the increasing number of women clarinetists prompted them to include a movable thumb rest, they originally intended the R13 Prestige model to be sold just on the Japanese market, the Tosca model was built to incorporate some of the tonal features of the modern German (read Sabine Meyer) clarinet (which means they hear that instrument as fuller toned with a complex overtone series rather than just dark and covered), they had hoped serious professionals would adopt the Elite model (whereas most American players considered it a boutique item for doctors and dentists and other affluent amateurs), they admit many flaws in their models such as the fragility of the Elite's thin walls and tenons and the BC20 problems with intonation, their remark about the Americans wanting a "loud and clear" instrument in the R13 shows that they see the American market as distinct and idiosyncratic, and their freely accept the fact that their profits derive mainly from sales to amateurs, students,and other non-professionals. Unlike Americans they do not seem to have a great deal of nostalgia for the older models and are very future oriented and interested in developing newer ones. They are candid enough in not claiming to have some grand physical theory for clarinet design and admit that they are empirical and pragmatically make changes in response to criticism and suggestions from players. Trial and error is a large part of the work they do. Also they pay close attention to what other manufacturers are doing and they knew who was designing and testing each model of Selmer and Leblanc clarinet. We can be sure from this that they are paying close attention to the clarinets made today by Yamaha and Backun (among others) and they intend to stay competitive.
Post Edited (2018-02-02 03:27)
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