Matched Set of Old Buffet Clarinets - 4/26/13

One of our big projects at work this week was a matched set of Buffet clarinets - one Bb, one A - that came in a neat old double case. They are very nice solid body instruments with all sorts of unique key mechanisms. Both were in for overhauls - they got disassembled and cleaned, the bores were oiled, all the keys and posts were buffed, all pads and corks were replaced, and parts were repaired/straightened/sealed as needed. I got to work on the Bb while my associate, M, did the A. It was an enlightening experience because, while we're each pretty well in tune with how the other works, we got to see the parallels in our work in real-time. And since we wanted the work to be identical between the two instruments, that meant we each had to scrutinize the other's work and ask questions about our repective techniques. For instance, I always use cork on a particular articulation on clarinets, but Mike asked that I use teflon sheet to match his work, which worked much better. I dry-fit all the pads on my clarinet before gluing them, which allowed me to advise him on what pads to use. The instruments cleaned up very nicely and will look great when they're finished. I'll be sure to post follow up images next week, but for now I wanted to make sure I preserved some images of them "before."

Here are the two side-by-side. Bb on top. Notice that the G# keys are in line with the other mainline keys instead of being on the side, both have Low Bb/Eb keys, left hand Ab/Eb levers, and an open-hole pad for the middle finger of the left hand.

The trademarks are stamped with W.H Cundy on the Bb bell and H. Bettoney on the A bell. Cundy and Bettoney in Boston were apparently one of the early Buffet importers in the US.

  A close-up view of the low end keys, with the Eb/Bb key at the far left side of the picture. Sorry about the dental floss. I don't know why I didn't cut that off before taking pictures. Lord knows why it was there.

The right hand keys have an extra trill key between the top and middle rings, and a screw on the Bb/F pad cup that closes the C#/G# key when trilling.

The key for the middle finger of the left hand is usually just a ring over a chimney. Similar rings are visible on the right and left of this picture. But these instrument have a pad there with an open hole in the middle, which I'm told is for playing a forked Eb. The pad and key cup are identical to those found on open-hole flutes, and the key takes a flute pad. This is the only pad on the instrument that's not glued in. Instead it's held in place with a grommet and leveled with paper shims that are stacked inside the key cup.

A shot of the tone hole under that pad. The hole that air vents out of is quite small; about the same size as the opening in the pad. But the pad seats, or seals, against the lip surrounding that hole. I guess the hole is smaller to allow proper intonation or tone quality, as the size of a tone hole vastly affects those two things.

Reaching the top of the instrument, we have a register key that wraps around to the top of the bore. Most register keys sit on the bottom of the bore where they're prone to collect water and dirt. I love these wrap-around keys. They're big and ugly and out-of-place and I love them.