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Re: Buffet's Build Quality...

Author: clarnibass
Date: 2018-03-13 08:51

Generally, by far most players (including the best and excellent ones) don't notice build quality issues as long as they don't affect the way the clarinet plays very significantly. Of course there are exceptions.

Some issues I noticed on more than a few recent new Buffets:

Sticking tenons, with the tenon lower shoulder being larger than the socket by as much as 0.3mm. IMO this is more than can be accounted for by changes in weather and playing on the new clarinet, especially since the bore and upper tenon shoulder seem to be fine.

Binding or loose keys. Sometimes the keys "wobble" on the hinge while threading the screw (for rod screw). This is the result of either a thread that is significantly off center with the rod screw or post holes that are misaligned (mostly the latter), sometimes both. Some keys "solved" this problem by being a loose fit to compensate, but once fitted they are binding. This can be tricky (but possible) to repair sometimes, depending on the exact cause of the problem.

Low quality pads that tear very fast, sometimes even after a few months. This is for models with bladder pads, which include some of the professional models (some lower models actually don't have bladder pads).

Pads not sealing, either because of poor alignment e.g. hitting first in the front or back (usually the back), or (less often) because of tiny chips in the tone hole rims.

General flaws in design or build. For example, a few clarinets had the left hand F/C lever edge of the linkage arm hitting the F/C key spring cradle before the lever was actually closing the key. This meant the left hand lever didn't work.

Bad design and build of the pivot screws. The pivot screws have the plastic sleeves for decades. This is to make them not thread out, etc. and can be a good idea in general.
Some problems are the very short thread, but more recently I've seen cases where the screw couldn't even bottom on the head. Instead, the screw was "bottoming" by the sleeve pushing and squeezing against a smaller area before the threads. The key was loose in a way that is usually repaired by countersinking the post. This was impossible because of that. The screw was also less solid in the post as a result (not bottoming on the head, very short thread, tight only on the plastic sleeve).

One of the top models have a completely unnecessary design where a post is blocking a screw from coming out. A blunder by the lowest industrial design standards.

That's at the top of my head right now...

That said, they still play very nicely most of the time. Some of the problems might not be significant to the way they play, at least for some players. That doesn't mean the build quality is good.

I'm sometimes wondering if being a small country is that is probably less significant to their market means we might get the more problematic ones here, but I know that some sellers fly and choose the clarinets in France, plus the clarinets with those issues came from at least three different countries...

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Buffet's Build Quality... new

Chris P

2018-03-11 13:43