Grandpas old clarinet

[Ajshns29]

My grandfather gave me his old clarinet when I joined band in 6th grade in the late 90s.  I played it through high school and now my daughter is in high school band and is playing the "rental" clarinet that she has had since 5th grade. She wants to play my clarinet as hers need to be serviced. So I guess my question is. Do I have grandpa's clarinet fixed up for her to use?  I dont know what it is other than old. Lol. I can see jerome and Paris in the makers mark but I dont know what that means. Or should I have her plastic clarinet tuned up? 

[DaveLeBlanc]

Sorry for the late reply, I guess I didn't notice this when it was first posted.

It sounds like you have a reasonably standard 1940s-1960s French "stencil" wooden clarinet.

Generally speaking, these are pretty decent beginner to intermediate instruments. Some are better than others, some are worse than others. But overall, you can't really go too far wrong with one of these.

Is it worth fixing up? Depends how much you plan to spend. I offer a very low-cost refurbishment service; a local music store would usually charge upwards of $300 to refurbish a vintage clarinet.

[modernicus]

Could be Jerome Thibouville Lamy, not a stencil, but an excellent old maker.  It could be a little on the old side, depending, for a student to play right now.  I see a lot of them on online auctions from the late 1800s to the 1920s. They can be a bit more fragile and older can often mean a lot of potential for wear/wood shrinkage (lower joint posts then get loose, causing keys to be sluggish) etc.. and I don't feel they play quite the same as newer instruments.  I feel more modern instruments 1930s-1950s+ have a better combination of construction, tuning, tone and projection.  In my experience, older instruments are often lacking in at least one of those areas and I think others have made similar observations. There is also Ch. Jerome, which I don't know much about, but I think there is a thread on here.  Also very old, though.

[DaveLeBlanc]

Good point! I totally forgot about JTL 

I wonder how an antique (vice vintage) clarinet would work for modern usages.

To be fair, at the 5th grade level I'm not sure the player, or the group, would demand anything more than a basic, playable and not terrible student-level clarinet.

If I was in 5th grade playing on a 100 year old clarinet, I know that I would have been the talk of the school. Might be worth it for the street cred, if nothing else.