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Re: Too worn to be made playable?

Author: Chris P
Date: 2018-08-22 00:24
Attachment: r4430.jpg (330k)

How worn out is the keywork? Things like worn ring keys and touchpieces can be rebuilt by preparing them, hard soldering nickel silver sheet or prefabricated parts onto and then hidden under a generous amount of silver plating. Tonehole chimneys can either be skimmed or built up to make them level and any chipped or wonky toneholes repaired and levelled or bushed and recut in the worst case scenarios. Cracked tenons and sockets can be repaired as can other cracks and not have any impact on playability. Worn, rusted, broken or missing screws can be replaced and the whole instrument can be brought back up to full playing condition.

I'm not entirely sure why you consider it not compatible with new clarinets as chances are some players on new clarinets can't play them in tune or have a good tone even on the most expensive clarinets they can afford (in the belief the top model Buffet or whatnot will make them a better player when they struggle with the basics).

My main clarinet is a 1958 CT full Boehm which was in a horrendous state when I got it having been kept somewhere damp and then dried out leaving the wood very dry with chalky mineral deposits leeching from the grain. The bell socket was cracked, but on the plus side it had stainless steel rod and adjusting screws fitted, so none of them had rusted and needed to be extracted which made it plain sailing removing the keywork.

This is a closeup of what it looked like when I bought it:
https://www.woodwindforum.com/clarinetperfection/galleryclar/Keywork/FB/05.jpg

I found a 67mm barrel for it (the original had been shortened to 62mm which is way too short for me) and did all the work on it myself before having the keywork plated. The biggest expense (besides the purchase price) was the plating which I had done by Buffet's platers who did an excellent job and it's still looking good to this day.

I play it in all settings from wind 5tet, small chamber groups, bands, orchestras and never had any problems with tuning, intonation or blending with other players - consider this was in its time the ONLY clarinet Selmer made - the only others being played professionally were Buffet (one model), Leblanc (maybe more than the one model) and B&H (definitely two pro models). While the CT was (and still is) popular with Jazz and big band players, they were played by some orchestral clarinettists as well.

See attachment which is how my CT turned out.

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

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