 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: dabrockli
Date: 2016-01-06 07:18
this is my first post here, but i've used this website in the past to find a lot of information on clarinets and my clarinet.
I am a music education major and I hope to be a doubler a little after I graduate. I play on a buffet international clarinet. I believe this is an intermediate clarinet but I get all types of opinions so I'm not really sure. Anyways, my professor has told me numerous times that I'm in need of a professional clarinet, unfortunately right now its just not in the budget so I have to make do with what I have for the next few months. I knew that it needed to be overhauled because i was the second person in my family to have used it and it probably needed some tlc. I took it to a place in philly and basically I was told that the intonation of the instrument was off being that the longer I played the sharper I got. I was able to stabilize the pitch for most of the notes but he said my e/b key was a lost cause as I was very sharp on those notes. but like i said, i can't afford to get a new clarinet right now. So I took it in to my local music shop to get it overhauled, was that a good choice? Will putting money into a clarinet that may or may not be fixable (thats what the repair guy in philly told me) be worth it?
I was also wondering if maybe by getting a new barrel/bell/mouthpiece would that help my intonation? I was looking at backun barrels but I wasn't sure of what size would fit the international.
I play on a vandoren series 13 m15 mouthpiece with vandoren v12 strength 4 reeds and the barrel/bell that came with the clarinet (if that matters)
sorry for the long post and maybe extra information that wasn't needed..kinda on a time crunch because i need to figure something out being I go back to school on the 17th.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-01-06 13:35
Ok I'm not familiar with your horn, but I looked at one on Ebay and it is described as "a step up" from an E11. That should be "ok." I don't understand "being sharp on the e/b key." Boehm clarinets ARE set up to be slightly high on the third line 'B' and slightly low on the 'low E.' But if you are having some internal pitch irregularity such as one note being much high than the next, no change in equipment (barrel or
otherwise) is going to remedy that.
The other issue you describe about getting sharp as you play is also commonplace. Well, if what you mean is that after about ten minutes you play about ten cents (on the tuner) higher than when you started. Most of that is the instrument warming up, or rather the air column in the horn warming up. You'll experience a similar difference in pitch between playing in a cool room (circa 65 degrees) vs a hot one (circa 90 degrees). You compensate by just pulling the barrel out a little more.
If clarinet is not your main focus anyway, you may want to hold on to that one and get it in good working order rather than looking to spend thousands on a new horn. This stuff would be great to work out with your teacher as long as he/she is apprised of all the parameters you spelled out.
...................Paul Aviles
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Author: Steven Ocone
Date: 2016-01-06 17:22
I believe the "International" model IS an E-11 or very close, and was labeled differently to be sold only through certain companies or channels (for example, no catalogs or internet or only through certain stores).
Perhaps the retail seller was able to get a great price by buying large quantities and had less price competition because it was a unique model. I don't know the specifics for this model, but the strategy is very common.
Steve Ocone
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