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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000025.txt from 2003/07

From: Rhondda May <rmay@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Music on the 4th--patriotic instruments?
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 07:04:44 -0400

All,
This is very interesting to me.
I work for a toy manufacturer and we make plastic toys in China....some
of which may sometimes be found on the shelves of Walmart.

I have visited factories and had a few discussions with my boss, and I
don't see a good reason that factories in China couldn't make plastic
oboes that cost far, far less than American-made plastic oboes, without
a significant loss in quality. It's only a matter of a mold, the kind
of plastic pellets that are used, and the set-up of the holes/
mechanism. The factories have busy seasons, and I'm sure that in the
off-seasons it would only be a matter of a few weeks to produce all the
oboe bodies that the market could possibly want at the required price
point. The finishing could all be done in North America.

There are quite a number of Chinese-made wood oboes circulating around
here in Hong Kong. They're awful, mostly because the metal used in the
mechanism is so cheap that you can bend it with your hands. You can't
keep them in any kind of adjustment, and because they tend to be
fully-automatic (instead of semi-automatic), there is more mechanism
(and trickier mechanism) to get fouled up. I inherited one from a
student that's going to be a lamp sometime in the future....

Best,
Rhondda

JERBSN@-----.com wrote:
>
> Hello Donna,
> I don't know about the color issue, but was amazed and appalled at a
> display at Walmart of clarinets, trumpets and flutes, each priced at
> $217 and made in China. There are going to be some very disappointed
> band directors or parents when the student shows up with one of these
> and is told to take it back in the fall.
> Best wishes,
> James E. Roberson, Jr.