Klarinet Archive - Posting 000086.txt from 1994/12

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Ralph Nunn asks about LeBlanc clarinets
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 09:10:31 -0500

Ralph, welcome to the board and thanks for your interest.

We go through this from time to time, but the way it keeps coming out
is that the advertisements of clarinet character as made by the
manufacturer are all hype. That does not mean that the clarinets
are poor or that you will not like them. Not at all.

It only means the LeBlanc would be very foolish to say that "Our new
clarinet is OK. Pitch is pretty good. We think you'll like it."
That's dumb advertsing. So instead they (and Buffet and Selmer and
Yamaha and everybody else) makes grandiose statements about "rich
tone color" and "superior intonation to any other clarinet ever made
since the beginning of time" and "brilliantly exploitative of the
natural sound character of the various woods involved." And if you
can figure out what the hell these cliches mean, let me know. Of
course I made them up to exaggerate my argument but you know what
I mean. They represent media hype.

Of course the manufacturer is going to tell you that his or her
product is the best and finest. Do you believe that when Ford
uses those same words? Do you believe that when Westinghouse
is trying to sell you a refrigerator. Or they will say that
Fred Schnurtz of the Ellis Island opera has recently changed over
to our model, conveniently mentioning the fact that they worked
3 years of Schnurtz's clarinets and paid him $75,000 to do this
thing.

Clarinets are commodities and such items are sold, to a great
extent through advertising, word-of-mouth, good reputation, and
the assertion by famous people that they are great.

LeBlanc makes a wonderful clarinet. So does Buffet. So does
Selmer. Play on one and chose it on the basis of what you
and your teacher think. Ignore all the media hype. Don't
make your decision under social pressure. ("All the pros play
Buffet so if I don't buy one I'll be a putz!")

By the way, your note said that your current clarinet has a nice
dark tone. Is it possible that it has no tone at all and that it
is you who has the nice tone? You might want to look up the
months of discussions on tone production and the words used to describe
tone character on this list.

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