Klarinet Archive - Posting 000518.txt from 1997/10

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: The worst clarinet ever?
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 06:10:55 -0400

Perhaps it's a ready-made "fit to be made into a lamp" clarinet - or,
given its provenance, a candlestick.
Roger Shilcock

On Mon, 13 Oct 1997, Ian Dilley wrote:

> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 10:41:02 +0100
> From: Ian Dilley <imd@-----.uk>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.us
> To: klarinet@-----.us
> Subject: The worst clarinet ever?
>
> 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?
>