The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: trish1908
Date: 2019-08-26 16:55
hello. I am a flautist so clarinets are a complete mystery to me, I have been given a Buffet Crampon clarinet and as well as learning to play would like to learn more about it. I've examined the instrument and found the following:
Buffet Crampon logo on the mouthpiece, as well as the numbers F2a and 120G. Further down on the instrument I find the words Made in England and the number 403395. From this info, is it possible to find out the model and year of manufacture. I've done a bit of surfing on the web but found nothing definitive. I assume that as it says Made n England that it dates to when Buffet became part of Boosey and Hawkes (or is that an incorrect assumption)
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2019-08-26 17:11
If it just says Buffet Crampon on the mouthpiece then it is just a Buffet mouthpiece on a non-Buffet clarinet. It is very common for old instruments to come with non-original mouthpieces.
If you can post pictures, it might help determine the correct manufacturer.
-Jdbassplayer
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Author: Kaos
Date: 2019-08-27 00:46
Buffet Crampon horns were never made in England, so it should be a B&H clarinet with a Buffet mouthpiece.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2019-08-27 23:39
The serial number 403395 indicates that the instrument was made in 1973 about 10 years before B&H ceased to manufacture clarinets.
Unfortunately it is not possible to identify the model from ser. no. alone as the sequential listing of numbers was applied to all their woodwind instruments (except flutes) regardless of instrument type or whether it was a student of professional model. That said the number of oboes and bassoons made was very small compared to clarinets.
B&H always identified the model type (e.g Regent, Emperor, Imperial etc) by engraving or stamping it on the top of the top joint, just above the A/Ab keys operated by LH finger 1.
The only exception to this was when a manufactured instrument had a flaw, almost invariably cosmetic and not affecting it's musical function, and in these cases the instruments had the ser. no. and "made in England" stamp but no mention of B&H or model type.
These "no name" instruments were generally student or intermediate models. The lower grades were at this time all made from plastc or ebonite type material, Some of the Edgware and Emperor models were made in both plastc and wood versions.
This may hopefully give you some clues to work on.
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