I just received my 1929 Buescher True Tone 731 metal clarinet in the mail today. It looks pretty good for an unrestored horn that is nearly 100 years old! The principal difficulty is going to be getting the adjustable tuning barrel to work. If I understand things correctly—and I’m not certain that I do—I think that I should be able to rotate the barrel one turn at a time, and it will get slightly longer or shorter with each rotation. I think that my problem is that there are two threaded tabs that engage with threads in the lower part of the barrel. These are keys that engage the keyways in the upper part of the body of the clarinet. When the barrel is twisted, these tabs ought to slide in the female threads that are cut into the bore of the lower part of the barrel. Mine are immovable. I’m soaking the assembly in a mixture of acetone and hydraulic fluid. The tabs protrude slightly, and I can get a screwdriver corner under the end and pry. The end flexes up out of the thread when I do that. It puzzles me, if the pieces are loose enough to wiggle, why I can’t just pry them out?
