 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jay Craven
Date: 2001-11-14 19:57
I have an old 13-Key Buffet but don't know age. Is made of rosewood with woodwn mouthpiece. No serial no. but has the following: "BRE/FT FS". Underneath these is the following: "S.G.B.[or 8.]G." Any help would be appreciated.
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Author: Steven
Date: 2001-11-14 21:11
I have a similar instrument - It is a Buffet Crampon 13 key clarinet in "C" and appears to be high pitch, but is very pretty. All the name rondels are crisp and sharp with gold embossing, and the wood is a light reddish color. It has what appears to be the original wood mouthpiece, and looks like a german bore (not much flare in lower joint). MP is shaped to use german cut (black master) reeds. Its sounds very nice, and can be played with modern pitch instruments by "stringing" the bore. No serial number is on it, and BC Company says it dates before they started to number horns in 1875 or so. I'd be interested in your horn's story.
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Author: Steven
Date: 2001-11-14 21:44
Sorry - I read earlier on this site that in former years that musicians needing to meet varying pitch standards would resort to dropping a piece of string down the bore the instrument from the mouthpiece/barrel joint to lower the pitch. I tried it with this horn and it worked perfectly. The thicker the string, the lower the pitch. Adjusting the length changes somewhat the effect on the notes with long fingerings. There is a limit - if the string gets too thick, the tone of the horn starts getting thin and loses character. Also, as the strings gets saturated, the tone changes somewhat. I'm experimenting with chunks of "Fly Line" (fishing) to solve that problem. That said, it plays fine at 440hz with this method. Of course, with no patent c# key, its a little awkward for some music.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2001-11-14 22:47
Thank you.
You know the old saying about how you can learn something new every day?
Well, it's true.
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2001-11-15 01:42
I once toyed with a piece of insulated wire down the bore to fashion a barely serviceable A-pitch instrument out of a B-Flat clarinet. I was always mildly convinced that a bit of thought and a lot of tweaking could have turned it into something reasonable. I don't recall a particular "thinness" of the sound, but it has been quite a while. I would believe appropriate nylon line should do quite okay for converting HP to LP.
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Author: Steven
Date: 2001-11-15 14:54
Jay, with respect to your inscription, it is "Brevetes S.G.D.G." I have the same on my top joint. Check earlier threads, and I think you'll find one saying that this is a French trademark registration notice or something to that effect.
As to the string in bore discussion, yes I find that this works best on clarinets the size of the "C"; for some reason it's not as good as the instrument gets bigger.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-11-15 18:15
Within my limited semi-legal experience, Brevet [and its forms] indicate the presence of legal protection [a patent etc], and SGDG "without governmental guarantee", please others respond, or Search the Phorum, its there. Don
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Author: jr
Date: 2001-11-18 23:59
One of the fellows who plays in our community orchestra uses a stringer on his Bb. He bought it 50 years ago, it is two nesting aluminum tubes, the larger about 3/16" diameter. It has holes drilled into it so that a piece of spring wire can be inserted to hold the two pieces together and because the spring wire bows out, it holds the stringer in the bore. The tube lines up along the center of the tone holes, pressed by the spring against the wall of the bore.
jr
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