Klarinet Archive - Posting 000053.txt from 1995/05

From: John Baetens <JSBtens@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Mouthpiece repair/refacing
Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 01:52:42 -0400

Lisa's attempt to fix her shattered mouthpiece with epoxy reminds
me of something that happened to me back in 7th grade.
I was at home practicing a difficult run on my ebonite student-
model clarinet, starting slowly and gradually speeding up the
metronome to try to get it up to tempo. No matter how much
I practiced it, I could not get it up to speed. I got so frustrated,
I broke my clarinet cleanly into two pieces, right at the middle
joint. Whoa, did my mood change from anger to horror in a
hurry.
I thought I had fixed it with epoxy, but right in the middle of band
practice at school, it fell apart. The band director, thinking I was
just goofing around when he saw me sitting there with half my
clarinet in each hand, stopped the band and started yelling at me.
When I explained to him that my clarinet was broken, he just
shook his head and laughed.
It cost me $75.00 to get it fixed in 1960's dollars. Half the price
of the clarinet new, if I recall.