Question about playability of my recent used Buffett purchase.

blogan

Just bought a clarinet and unfortunately I was unable to play it before purchase. I can start with an open G and work my way down to the low F but I notice a change in pressure or back pressure when I get down to the lower joint. And if I try to play the low F right of the bat without working my way down to it, I sometimes cannot get a sound or it might squeak a little. Same thing with the upper register and the C up there.

I was told that it could be a leak somewhere in the lower joint. I'm a guitar player on a cruise ship. Is there any sort of easy fix or work around for this? Gonna be about a month before I can get it to anyone to look at it.

I also notice that if I have my fingers on the lower joint especially my right hand ring finger or the low G perfectly placed over the holes I can get a good sound, but I am having to put significant pressure on that ring finger to cover the hole properly. I had a cheaper plastic clarinet a few years ago and don't remember having this kind of difficulty. I do notice that with the proper finger placement it helps the situation but again I have to be extremely precise.

So, any notes on the upper joint I have no problem sounding. The notes below low A I have to either work my way down to or have to be extremely precise in my fingering.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Also can anyone tell me why this clarinet feels lighter than other clarinets I have picked up. It's a Buffet, 1925.

Thanks and sorry for the long post, but this will greatly help with my sanity while stuck out here.
 
The first step I would do since you have very limited access to a repair person is to check for a leak:
http://clarinetperfection.com/AtHomeLeakTest.htm

If the test is more positive then the next step I would do is to see how the linkage may be affecting it's playbility.

There is a tab on the upper joint that overlaps a "lift" on the lower mechanism. If that tab is too low then it basically affects the lower joint top pad from closing 100% which can affect everything below there in addition to the 1st finger Bb keyed x00-x00.

In which case you can slowly with pressure try to lift the tab up.

But do the pressure test above first before we can actually give more thoughts on this.
 
Another problem area...

...is that the slip of cork normally placed under the bridge key component (the "tab" ) on the upper joint sometimes comes off or wears off, also affecting how things seal up.

And there are my favorites, the keys coupled under the "crows foot" mechanism. This cluster of keys for the right hand little finger is easily disrupted, particularly if someone puts the horn together with too much vigor, and when that happens the keys need to be nudged back into position before things work right.

My final issue that I worry about on the soprano is the height of the rings surrounding the finger holes. If these are set at the wrong height for your hand and finger anatomy, you can have problems, particularly with the ring finger, right hand.

If there is a sax/clarinet player on the ship, have him/her take a look at the horn. Their eyes may see something that you are missing, and they may have an emergency repair kit of their own on board. I know that I always did.
 
It's probably just a junker horn. Tell you what: ship it to me. I'll take care of it.

(This has gotta work sometime!)
 
Nah! Don't think it's a junker. It is rather old. It's a Buffet made in 1925. Not that that really means anything. But I do have pretty good ears and it does have a very nice tone. I'm a guitar player and all I want to do is get a sweet warm tone out of it. And thus far I can achieve that. I have since learned by asking a clarinet player on the ship, about the instrument, that the bore of the tone holes or finger holes (whatever you call them) are slightly larger on this horn. And I think he mentioned specifically the right hand third finger hole on the lower joint. I am able to get things to sound properly but I do have to make sure that I have everything properly covered. This guy who played it also had the same problem, and seemed to have the same problem with the finger holes. He said that this might be due to the fact that there have been many changes in the modern clarinets regarding bore and technical aspects which more easily facilitates better technique.

Thanks for everyone's comments. I am happy with the tone first of all and just love the tone of a sweet sounding clarinet. So with a little bit of tweaking I think I can get what I want out of this instrument.

Does anyone know of a Bill Street mouthpiece? This mouthpiece has Bill Street inscribed on it. Just curious.

Thanks
 
The earlier Buffets have a larger bore and large toneholes. The Selmer CT is the biggest of them all and when I play my CT I have to make myself aware of covering up that 3rd tonehole properly. My Buffet BC-20 is similar, and I have an earlier Buffet too with the same concern. I can actually stick my 3rd finger INTO the 3rd tonehole in the CT .. I do have small hands/fingers though.
 
Yeah, I think that the tone hole thing might be most of the problem. Although this Hungarian clarinet player on ship right now just played it and he said a couple of the pads are not right. He plays a clarinet with a German fingering system so he couldn't get around on it like he can on his own instrument, but he did say that the tone was excellent. And I could definitely hear it.

Any idea why my clarinet is so much lighter than some of the others I have held?

Thanks again and this is going to be a real challenge. Having played clarinet in grade school and bass clarinet in high school I know about having to learn scales in all 12 keys, but after playing guitar for so many years and now working out on the clarinet a little bit I have a new respect for you guys. It's funny but I'm going to end up playing clarinet from the standpoint of a guitar. Things are so different on guitar. We function more on shapes and positions. And we really only have to learn things in one key and then learn it in a key either a 4th or 5th away and you pretty much have the guitar covered.

This will be good for me.
 
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