 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2005-10-11 16:19
I just got my 43-year old full Boehm Buffet R16-1/2 back from a professional-level overhaul by Muncy Winds.
The R-16-1/2 designation means that it is an R13 with all of the Full Boehm keys except the long Eb (that model was the R-17)
Technician Rodney Berry did the work, which included tone hole undercutting, cork pads on the upper joint, and a lot (obviously) of adjustments to the mechanism.
What a great job was done. I told Rodney that I wanted the clarinet to dissapear so that I could be directly connected to the music I am playing. He did that! When playing legatto passages, no notes stick out; none are slow to start, intonation is greatly improved (but different now).
With a new Mitchell-Lurie M3 (similar to my old ML M3), I can play pianissimosso with no air noise and crecendo to a level that blows the music stand up against the wall.
I spent three hours with the horn and a handful of mouthpieces so far, but am nowhere close to finishing my review of its playing, but I'm really on to something here.
I paid a fair price for this service and the only compensation I will recieve from this post is to know that those who read it will know that these folks do good work.
Bob Phillips
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2005-10-12 05:02
Can you be a little more specific about what they did, and how much it cost?
Thanks.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2005-10-12 18:00
The fee for the "Professional" overhaul was $500, the barrel and mouthpieces are offered at Muncy's retail prices.
The work included:
Tone holes were adjusted/undercut to improve intonation. They would have charged more if there was a lot of this cutting required;
Cork pads on the upper joint --except for the Eb hole, which is skin;
New corks on the tenons;
Mechanism pivots, springs, key heights, linkage adjustment made wonderful;
The key and ring heights were set. It might have been better if I could have been in North Carolina for this operation because I find that I have to curve my fingers (probably should anyway) more than I'm used to to poke their tips into the tone holes. Yesterday: no problem; today: I started my practice session with frequent squeaks caused by leaks around my fingertips.
One of the triumphs of this work:
This clarinet has a tricky mechanism to implement the articulated G#. The bridge linkage that connects the finger rings on the lower joint to the upper also closes the G# when any finger on the right hand is pressed down.
The right hand must close the upper joint Eb/Bb AND the upper joint's G#. That has been a problem through 2 previous "overhauls." The first-first finger Bb/Eb must close cleanly AND, the G# hole must uncover far enough to give a clean sound AND close, too. This is the first time in years that this pile has worked so well.
The keys are almost silent --no clatter.
They also offer a "Student" overhaul that is less expensive and uses skin pads.
The result is an instrument that reminds me of the perfect Selmer MK VIs I used to share with my boss at his music school.
Certainly a better investement than a new student-level horn.
I hope this helps and does not mis-represent Muncy's repair shop.
Bob Phillips
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