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Re: Pre-war 1010 L&P barrel length

Author: John Peacock
Date: 2021-11-11 13:57

I also have a pair of pre-War 1010s (not L&P). Interestingly, the barrel lengths are rather different to those given by Reformed:

Bb: 64.7mm (35,xxx; 1939)
A: 67.4mm (32,xxx; 1938)

Both barrels bear the same serial number as the main instrument, so they are original - although could theoretically have been shortened.

The A barrel is one of the longest I've ever seen, but it plays to 440 quite easily with post-War 1010 mouthpieces. However, it's too long for the Bb - although equally the existing barrel is too short, and something around 65.5-66 is really what's needed (for me to play it today, that is - not to disagree with Ramon Wodkowski's enlightening comments).

This does raise a separate issue, of whether pre-War 1010s were generally designed to use different bore barrels on Bb and A. With the post-War instruments I believe the barrels were intended to be interchangeable, and this is certainly the case with Peter Eaton Elites. Having a single barrel is a huge advantage for secure quick changes, and I always thought the loss of this was one way in which the move from 1010s to Buffets in the UK was undeniably a backward step - although yes of course it's a price worth paying for better tuning.

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