 The Ethnic Clarinet
|
Author: Grover
Date: 2001-08-15 15:32
I recently purchased what I thought was a pre-R13 Buffet Bb clarinet, expecting a pre-R13 sound. However, this horn plays REALLY nicely. A deep warm and full sound. The serial number is in the late 38,xxx range and production was in 1951 according to the charts.
I did some close inspection of the horn and found that it does have undercut tone holes and the inside bore diameters of each section match the diameters of my 1955 and 1967 R13's. I even switched sections between the three horns to make several hybrid 1951/1955 or 1951/1967 horns to see what would happen. In each case I ended up with a nice playing clarinet.
Does anyone know when Buffet started making R13's and what the earliest serial number would be? Personally, I've always used 50,xxx as a guideline, feeling that if it was not the earliest number, it was at least a safe number.
Any help appreciated.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-08-22 23:22
'51 is early for an R13. Undercut tone holes are not an indicator (undercutting existed at the turn of the century). You would have to measure the upper joint at the upper and lower and inset a certain distance to see if it's polycylindrical. There's a very small "step" in an R13. Prior to that R13 clarinets may have had a slight taper but not a step.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Herb
Date: 2001-11-03 22:36
The first modern Buffet clarinets date from the 1920's and were given the model number "13". Instruments made between 1935 and 1975 are considered by many to be the very best of Buffet's production. The "13" became the "R-13".
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-11-03 23:02
That is incorrect. Buffet only started the R13 designaiton in the 50s. The previous designation of the 13 was used by Carl Fischer, the importer of Buffet clarinets, not by Buffet. There were a numkber of designations from Carl Fisher - do a little searchintg on the Clarinet BBOard to find a copy of an old catalog.
I don't know what you mean by "modern" instruments, but the Boehm system was available from Buffet prior to 1920.
The instruments made between 1935 and 1975 are <b>totally</b> different instruments - the post-1954 instruments are polycylindrical, a radical design for their day.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2001-11-22 12:29
Could be a Buffet S1 which are very similar and some would say better than the standard R13/ RC. I am not sure of any dates but the S1 was produced for a while after the R13 started but someone out there may be able to correct me.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: John
Date: 2002-01-18 01:26
where is this buffet production chart? i would love to see it to determine the age of my buffet..
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JackOrion
Date: 2002-06-16 01:00
It could be the same horn they are basing the Vintage R13 on. Though Boosey is very hard to get info out of they do have a Forum on thier site Boosey.com It states there that the VR13's are replicas of the much loved 50's modal.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
