Klarinet Archive - Posting 000103.txt from 1994/04

From: SCOTT MCCHESNEY <MCCHESS4641@-----.EDU>
Subj: Composer's thanks...
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 19:51:12 -0400

I must send a small note to all of you who responded to my request for bands to
play my piece. I really didn't expect anybody to say "Yes", but to my surprise
I have TWO possibilities. We'll see how they pan out...they're looking good so
far. But, then again, the scores haven't reached them yet...

I am, unfortunately, unable to offer much of an opinion on the curent topics of
Bass Clarinet choice (I don't own one and have only played one once), Verdi's
Rigoletto (I hated singing Rigolettos in my male quartet in high school, but we
did them anyway), or reeds save what I have already posted to the list. As for
the Vandoren "watering down" of their cane, it does explain a lot, considering
the reeds I have had to deal with lately (I have been using V12's, and am
probably not going to be able to change brands in the near future; my professor
swears by them.)

I do, however, have a question to pose to the esteemables (and not-so-
esteemables) out there:

Having worked in a music store, I saw most of the new clarinets that came in
the store. Granted, we were primarily a Yamaha dealer, but there were also
Buffets at the higher end. One thing that struck me was the appaling size of
the cases, even for the more professional Clarinets; there is barely room for
cork grease and three reeds, let alone a swab, reed case, and the thousands of
other things we must truck along with us everywhere we go!!

I can understand this lack of storage space in the beginner Clarinet cases;
after all, when you start out you don't have much more than a swab, grease box
or tube, and two or three reeds, never in a separate case. But, even in the
Yamaha 72's and some of the R-13's I saw in the store, the amount of storage
space was sad, to say the least. This makes absolutely no sense to me - why
sell an "advanced model" Clarinet and not provide storage for all the little
odds and ends that the advanced Clarinet player has to have??

I asked our salesmen that once and they basically told me it was for cost
reasons, and if somebody wanted a case with more room, they could order one
quite quickly. Fine, so Yamaha saved $60 or so off the price and gave you a
pillbox to put your stuff in? C'mon, guys. If I am going to spend the $1500
or so it takes to buy a good Yamaha (that price is only a guess of what I
remember, so don't laugh if it's way off), I would damn well want a case big
enough to store my stuff in WITHOUT having to spend the extra $60-$100 to get
it AND be stuck with an extra case I can't use.

What perplexes me even more is that the old Buffet Clarinet that I have has
plenty of room to store things in, and it even includes an extra barrel slot.
My case isn't much bigger than the cases I see on the new Buffets. I know my
case is the original one, too.

So what happened???

-- Scott

-- hoping he isn't asking a REALLY dumb
question