Re: If handmade is better - why?


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Posted by Dan Schultz on September 06, 2002 at 16:56:01:

In Reply to: If handmade is better - why? posted by Volker on September 06, 2002 at 06:50:56:

I'm probably gonna get a lot of flack here, but being a manufacturing engineer (and also having seen the inside of a modern instrument manufacturing facility), I can give you my opinion that machine-made horns are better than one that is purely hand-crafted. This statement is from the point of view of consistancy. There are too many variables for anything to be hand-crafted and still be consistant enough to be adjusted for intonation. ALL modern instruments are annealed at several points through the manufacturing sequence. Many times, brass is drawn and redrawn. Sure, there are machines involved, but there is just so much that can be done by automation. 99% of all the soldering and assembly is still done by hand. In the case of UMI saxohphones, they only build 100 or so a day at the Nogales, Arizona (not Mexico) plant. The bodies are still formed on simple tooling. Numerical controlled equipment is used to machine the bodies of clarinets. The bottom line is that there is very little difference from one clarinet to the next. In the case of a tuba, the proof is in the details.... smooth seams on the inside of the tubing... properly aligned valves, etc. The tolerance fit of the pistons can make a big difference in intonation. Care in the assembly phase is where it counts... and machines don't do that.


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