 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2008-03-23 14:59
I'm thinking of buying a 1928 Buffet A clarinet. Serial number 600.
Anyone know anything about the Buffets of those years?
Looks good in photos...will try it out unless I hear a lot negative stuff about it. Tell me something....
Clarinet Redux
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Author: crnichols
Date: 2008-03-23 15:13
The sound and intonation of those instruments is quite different from modern instruments. It can be played beautifully, but it'll be an adjustment if you're an R-13 player.
Christopher Nichols, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Clarinet
University of Delaware
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Author: Lynn
Date: 2008-03-23 15:41
Geezer,
I play a 1935 model 13 (that's the official Buffet catalogue reference) and I agree with Christopher that the old guys are quite different than modern R-13s, yet I find my instrument (#18,995) to be quite nice, free blowing, and certainly manageable insofar as intonation goes. Mark Jacobi just spent an entire day on my old horn this week while he was visiting San Antonio as Steve Girko's guest, and the results are amazing. He was able to address lots of tuning issues as well as many mechanical items. I doubt my old relic has ever been as well-adjusted as it is now that Mark has worked his magic on it.
Good luck!
Lynn
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Author: Ryder
Date: 2008-03-23 16:03
Sounds cool. I'd go for it. Around the 1930-1950 companies started making compensating clarinets. They adjusted placements of tone holes, keys and so on. They did this to "compensate" for the tuning issues of older clainets. I don't know what Buffet was doing at this time, but i do know someone with an early 1950s Boosey and Hawkes compensating clarinet.
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Author: Lynn
Date: 2008-03-23 16:40
Geezer,
I just now rubbed two remaining brain cells together and realized that your potential A clarinet is coming from WBIC. That's where I bought mine three years ago, and I can heartily recommend doing business with Gary Ray and his excellent staff. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the instruments they offer for sale.
Lynn
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Author: GBK
Date: 2008-03-23 16:46
Ryder wrote:
> Around the 1930-1950 companies
> started making compensating clarinets. They adjusted placements
> of tone holes, keys and so on.
Ryder is correct.
The Buffet clarinets from the 1930's and 1940 had a little different placement of the fingered tone holes.
I've noticed that on the lower joint of the Bb clarinets the second tone hole is SLIGHTLY closer to the third tone hole than on modern R13's. This makes the RH sliver key a bit more prone to being brushed by your fingers
If you have larger hands you will feel the difference ...GBK
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2008-03-23 18:08
A 1928 clarinet is likely to have had the bore monkeyed with. I own several old Buffets, and the only ones that have been usable/restorable were put in a closet when new and almost never played.
Therefore, you should NEVER buy one without the right to return it for a full refund for any reason, or for no reason.
Look at the bore to see whether it's shiny all the way down, particularly in the area from the top of the upper joint down to the register tube, and also in the barrel. If it's dull, the bore has been re-reamed, which is a sure sign that the intonation was way out, and probably still is.
Use an electronic tuner, with someone else watching it, to check the intonation very carefully, and particularly whether the chalumeau/clarion relationship is good -- that is, when you play a chalumeau note and press the register key without changing your embouchure, is the clarion note in tune.
Be ready to get a new barrel. Go to someone who has made them for older instruments, since the length and taper will be different from what current instruments require.
Finally, the $1,995 price at Wichita seems high. If it's an exceptional instrument, with great intonation, it would be worth it, but not otherwise.
Ken Shaw
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2008-03-24 02:00
I have a Buffet A from the same year. The tone was maybe one of the best I have ever played, but the pitch was poor in the third register from c#~f# above the staff (super sharp!). I got mine from a store that did no work on it, but maybe the folks at WBIC did things to make it good. I don't have the heart to sell mine to anyone- I would feel bad for them.
The keywork was OK, but the single post mounted LH E/B and F#/C# keys are not a good idea. If you play it a lot then the F#/C# will come loose often.
With the age of this instrument, I would expect that the variation between one and another is much higher than today's instruments. Mine is bad but yours might be great- I would try it.
Post Edited (2008-03-24 02:50)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-03-25 13:31
The price seems high, although I don't know what fair retail value is. My best clarinets are a 1931 Buffet in A and a 1937 Buffet in Bb.
Ken Shaw wrote,
>>
Look at the bore to see whether it's shiny all the way down, particularly in the area from the top of the upper joint down to the register tube, and also in the barrel. If it's dull, the bore has been re-reamed, which is a sure sign that the intonation was way out, and probably still is.
>>
Thanks for this good advice. I'd add to it that if the bore looks dull, that could also be a sign of poorly-done work. A careful technician would leave that bore shiny.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2008-03-25 17:59
I own, and love, a 1926 Buffet Bb, which I bought (very) used about 25 years ago. It's been overhauled once and repadded twice in that period. It's my favorite-playing clarinet. Like someone said above, it is easy blowing, and very sweet-sounding, light to the touch and easy to handle. But its pitch tendencies are . . . well . . . idiosyncratic.
I consider my loving it sort of a secret vice. It does not play well with others.
Susan
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