Klarinet Archive - Posting 000048.txt from 1994/01

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: making a better clarinet out of plastic
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 20:10:59 -0500

Tom Ascher asks "Why can't they make a better clarinet out of plastic?" and
I cannot improve on Cary Karp's answer.

Of course they can make a better plastic clarinet, but they can't make one
cheap. The labor involved (even with extruded our poured materials) would
boost the price up.

What is needed from the manufacturers point of view is an acceptable,
inexpensive clarinet and they can achieve that out of plastic. They would
be fools to change their marketing strategy and merge their product lines
into one big one.

If I were president of Buffet, Selmer, or LeBlanc, I would not do it. It is
counterstrategic to maximum profit. But can they? Oh boy, in a minute (well,
perhaps a little longer).

They would need serious key refinement, better pads, much more precisely bored
tone holes, and a satin patina finish that made the material look elegant.
Now, it looks like a shiny black umbrella handle. But they could make one
as good as a Buffet Prestige horn any time they wanted to.

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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