Klarinet Archive - Posting 000517.txt from 1997/10

From: Ian Dilley <imd@-----.uk>
Subj: The worst clarinet ever?
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 05:41:02 -0400

This weekend I saw the worst clarinet I have ever come across. A friend
of mine bought this thing from the Christian bookshop in Keighley, W.
Yorks (England). He paid 30 pounds for it. Apparently the shop has
quite a few of these things.

This is a brand new Albert system instrument made of plastic. It has no
markings whatever so I can't tell where it came from. The keywork has
to be seen to be believed. The keys are made of some sort of cheap
bendy metal, really rough looking with plating that you can scratch off.

All the keys open about 1/2 an inch and the springs are set so strong
that they are acually hard to press, presumably to try to make the pads
seal. The pads themselves are covered in some sort of red plastic.

When the right hand ring keys were pressed that pad that they control
was about 1/4 inch above its hole. After a bit of judicious key bending
it was just possible to coax a few notes out of it.

Has anyone else seen these things or know where they have come from?