Klarinet Archive - Posting 000668.txt from 1998/06

From: "ICM" <icmza@-----.ar>
Subj: [kl] Reeds
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 19:17:07 -0400

On15 june Walter Grabner wrote to me in response to my query about Zonda
reeds (thanks very much those who responded, if anyone else has comments on
these reeds, please drop me line, I'm still market researching) and added
the following:

> One query, is there a plan to make bass clarinet reeds as well, and
distribute
> them? I tried the tenor sax reeds on my BCL with no success. So.....still
> using Vandoren...which really seems at this point to be my only option.

I spoke with Pablo Gonzalez this morning, he says that they have everything
required to make BC reeds, but at the moment they are not thinking of
launching one yet.

Maybe they can be persuaded...

On 12 june Oliver Seely asked:

> I'm a little suspicious though. Please don't tell me that the Gonzalez
> family works from dawn to dusk carving and sanding bits and pieces of
bamboo in the
> foothills of the Andes and then sells its products to a New York marketer
for
> 10 to the penny. The five I received were in a glossy black plastic
packet
> with an inner lining of something like velvet.

> The impression I got from all appearances is that whoever is making Zonda
> reeds has a nicely automated system.

Pablo had a good laugh at the image of seven little dwarves sanding away at
two thousand reeds or so ..... Reminded him of the fairy tale where the
shoe-maker had to make three pairs of perfect shoes by morning for the
King, and the elves helped him out...

His answer is that they have some of the best modern machines for cutting,
sanding, ..... whatever (I'm visiting the workshop next week, more details
later if you are interested), but that what he considers the most important
part of the work, the selection of the cane, is still done by hand and eye
by his father and workers in the fields and at the workshop.

The packaging (which some have said is "overkill") is somewhat more
complicated as it is designed in the USA (more or less) imported here and
then sent back out full of reeds... something from the first world, as you
noted.

Malcolm.
icmza@-----.ar

---------------------------------------------------------------------
For additional commands, e-mail: klarinet-help@-----.org
For other problems, e-mail: klarinet-owner@-----.org