Klarinet Archive - Posting 000940.txt from 1997/12

From: Nicholas Yuk Sing Yip <nyip@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 16:44:06 -0500

Only if I were in Paris. Retail stores will not let us try them out
without buying them as said before. I assume we can order them from Paris
try them and send the ones we do not like back.(^_^)

On Mon, 22 Dec 1997, avrahm galper wrote:

> TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
>
> After hearing the complaints about the quality of reeds and the meager
> number of good ones that one can get out of a box, there must be a
> solution to all this.
>
> Don't buy the reeds until you've tried them individually.
>
> Clarinet players ! There is such place.
>
> VANDOREN IN PARIS.
>
> Yes, they allow you to try the reeds and buy only what is suitable for
> you.
>
> I was at Vandoren once with my friend, Yona Ettlinger.
> There is a small room, where they bring you a tray with 40 reeds of your
> choice of strength.
> You sit and try all you want. Take your time.
>
> There is just one other thing that goes with it. In the small room
> there are about another 12 clarinet players also trying reeds.
> They're all playing the latest concerto, trying to show off or whatever.
>
> Imagine trying to find a reed under those conditions.
> The reeds are unstamped. When you buy them, they stamp them for you.
> I don't know what happens to the "tried" reeds. I guess they stamp them
> and throw them into the big pile.
> Maybe that is why some reeds that come in a box are good. They've been
> tried by someone else and between the time it was tried and you get it
> here, some chemical change has worked on it.
>
> Ettlinger was household guest there. His arrangement with Vandoren was
> this: He picked 10 reeds and they put them up on a shelf.
> After 10 days he would come back and pick the good ones from those 10.
> But -you need to be in Paris for this privilege. And Vandoren's friend.
>
> I had another friend who was in Paris for a week.Spent the week going
> into Vandoren, picking out the best. 200 reeds in all.
> Came back to Toronto and they didn't work at all.
> You see, the humidity in Paris is different from here.
> If it grows in France, maybe it wants to be played in France.
>
> But you have a choice.
> Compliments of the Season to all !
>
> Avrahm Galper
>

   
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