 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2025-04-10 13:16
They say there's no harm in looking but we know how that works !
Yesterday I went in to buy reeds and found that the big winds shop in town is having a stock reduction sale on bass clarinets ! So I decided to look. Sadly most of the stock was already out the door - I would have liked to try a Selmer for which there is a long wait usually - but they had two Buffet student Eb 1180 and a Tosca low C. The Tosca being the cost of a car, I only tried both 1180.
First impression confirmed rumors about 'out of the box' Buffets that they need a lot of adjusting to even play. The house tech was very helpful and solved like 3 pbms on one and the bridge key on the other and I was then able to easily play way up to G6 which I never would try on my Leblanc. One was more rewarding to play than the other , less resistance and more 'body', better first impression on the tuning. One note in particular on the less pleasing instrument was very flat, E4, and will need more attention. They both felt uncomfortable for my right hand even with the adjustable thumbrest all the way up and the crook is at a much different angle than Leblanc, all that would take getting used to.
But the instrument I found pleasing was nice to play and better than what I have currently.
Then I looked at the tuning with a tuner and found that with my Légère reed and BD5 I tended to be flat in a lot of places. Changing to my Selmer and a quarter strength up helped a bit. Wondering how much of this is me or my mp or the instrument whose crook is non-adjustable.
The wood looked suspiciously homogenious, like it had been treated with a filler on the outside; the grain was more evident in the bore and appeared knotfree.
The posts were what startled me the most : the post itself apparently does not screw into the wood but is held by a tiny screw in an eyelet soldered to the side. Apart from the clinky hardware look, it would seem to me that such a setup would be very difficult to put into alignement and be hard to hold in that alignement. Do other brands use this type of post fixation? Any techs out there with experience on this type of hardware? A constantly out of adjustement instrument is a nightmare even if it plays nicely when all is well.
Lastly, the body is stamped "made in Germany"; have they converted the Evette factories to making their student bass? And how much is manufacturing and how much assembly?
At under 6K€ it's tempting and here in the EU the only wood student bass in the game. Anyone have any experience with these instruments, either in the shop or over a longer time period of actual use? Thanks !
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2025-04-10 16:40
Student model Buffets (Evettes and B10 to E12) have for decades been made by Schreiber, so that's common knowledge - if it doesn't say 'Made in France' on it, it's not made in France. The factories aren't converted 'Evette' factories - they are their own factory and produce stencil instruments to fill the gap in Buffet's lineup as well as the bassoons Schreiber is more famous for producing.
For a while in the late '90s, Schreiber also produced flutes for Buffet after they moved production from B&H's factory on the Edgware Road (North London). Buffet saxes were also made by Jupiter (Evette) and Keilwerth and now they're made in China. There were also Evette saxes made in Italy back in the '60s and '70s.
Another thing that's been done by German makers (and others) is lacquering the wood with thick black lacquer to hide the grain pattern and make it all look uniform, so there's no apparent mismatch of different shades or grain pattern joints.
Buffet themselves also stain the joints on some of their own clarinets (E13 to R13/RC) with an alcohol based dye to make the joints all look uniform, although this tends to wear off in patches of high contact and can be removed by wiping over the joints with alcohol or solvent soaked rags.
Anchored pillars are commonly used on all clarinets to prevent the pillars rotating in certain locations if they're put under stress, or if the needle spring is biased in such a manner that tries to turn a regular threaded pillar anticlockwise which will loosen it and cause keywork to bind. It's a far more secure manner of mounting pillars than threaded pillars screwed directly into the wood as the figure of 8 baseplate is recessed into the joint which prevents rotation and the pillar is very much held securely by the wood screw. The pillar also has a metal stub on the underside that locates into a blind hole, so there's little risk of it coming undone.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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