During this period of unease there had also been a factory strike (if my memory serves me right) and it became difficult to obtain any product.
French selmer trumpet professional#
My mind was challenged though, how could this Prestigious brand breed such discontent with professional repairmen? Various changes were happening in the French labour market at the time and the working week had recently been restricted to 35hrs, this left Selmer with problems…they needed to make a certain amount of instruments per year to fulfil orders yet their work force had just reduced its capacity by around 30% due to the new labour laws. It amazed me that these instruments were being sold elsewhere straight from the box, people out there were buying blind, usually based on price and must have been really struggling to use the instruments. There were no problems with the manufacturing, crooks, bodies etc were all fine but the final finishing: padding, regulation, springing, corking etc was not great and the repairers here at Dawkes were having to spend hours sometimes getting these instruments into ‘Dawkes Condition’. There is resounding discontent with all things Selmer in the workshop it was at a time when the French were really struggling with quality control. Step forward a few years and I’d joined Dawkes Music as a trainee repairer, still a bit dumbstruck with the amount of stock we keep of professional instruments I seek the opinion of my senior repair colleagues on what brands are best etc etc. It served me well enough through the grades and school orchestra, before I was thrown onto Bass Clarinet in Concert Band and occasionally Orchestra – I presume this was purely because the director of music no longer wanted me in their eye line on the normal clarinet seat! Anyway, the school Bass was American made ABS and probably would have been ok had it been serviced since either of the World Wars…however my weekly battle with this beast certainly put me off Bass, UNTIL I got my hands on a Wooden Low C Selmer…WOW! That was an eye opener, I’d found out the Bass Clarinet could (a) sound good and (b) work! It was a remarkably forward thinking effort by the normally traditionalist French manufacturers and in true Gallic style it didn’t really work! A few problems later and my Selmer came back with real cork on the tenons and off I went with a more traditional but working clarinet. The instrument was a Selmer Prologue which at the time was quite new and came with revolutionary rubber O rings on the tenon joints, as opposed to the traditional cork that was prone to drying up and needing replacing etc. Sure the Buffet and Yamaha were fine and played well, nice and easy, but I remember the tone of the Selmer just hitting a chord with my idea of what a clarinet should sound like rich, dark and woody yet sweet with no rattling brightness. I remember having the choice of a Buffet, Selmer and Yamaha. My first experience with the Selmer brand was as an up and coming (I’m too old to be still be ‘up and coming’ maybe ‘come and gone’…) clarinet player, aged 11, grade 6 in the bag and needing a Wooden instrument to see me through to the later grades and the inevitable fame and fortune…ahem. I’ve been selling Selmer personally for the last 13 years and it’s fair to say it’s been a bumpy time with various ups and downs… So, Valentines Day 2011 comes around and arriving on our doorstep is a new delivery of Selmer Paris Saxophones and Clarinets. Selmer Paris – My French Love Affair…14th February 2011