Klarinet Archive - Posting 000894.txt from 1998/09

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] The Best Clarinets
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 09:07:24 -0400

>Selmer's line is not exactly secret. Try their web page. The reason you
>don't notice them being publicised is that you are looking for them in the
>mail order catalogues. They do not allow their line to be advertised in
>catalogues, as a means of protecting their dealer base. Yamaha has only
>recently allowed it, and apparently they don't let them publish prices.
>Selmer and Yamaha being just about the biggest instrument manufacturers in
>the country, it shouldn't be THAT hard to find dealers in your area!

I've called several of the big mail order places like WW&BW and yes, they
do indeed carry Selmer clarinets. They deep-discount them as they do with
other brands. The Selmer "Signature" series seems to be competing
price-wise with the Prestige and Opus: it's VERY expensive, but you can get
a 10G or Recital (the latter is a magnificent-sounding but real heavy horn)
for slightly more than a standard R-13. If you request catalogues from
Selmer and nag them enough, eventually they WILL send you some beautifully
printed, high quality brochures, along with a Suggested Retail Price
booklet which is really the funniest document on earth, unless you're
looking at LeBlanc's price booklet too.

IMHO there are two big problems in dealing with Selmer.

One is the lack of publicity. They just have this problem about
publicizing their clarinets and saxophones: not to mention the fact that
make flutes, oboes, and bassoons. Catalogue stores can and do list their
sax necks, bocals, etc., but that's where the publicity ends.

The other big problem, and this is far more grievous, is how absolutely
unforthcoming they are about their own instruments, especially the models
that have been superceded. If there is a Selmer/Paris equivalent to
Francois Kloc, he must be in hiding with Salman Rushdie. Everything I
learned about the dimensions and design characteristics of the Centered
Tone I learned from people HERE, not from a Selmer technician.

As an afterthought: on the website they list the various trumpet and sax
players who use their instruments. They do NOT list the clarinetists. Is
this because nobody since Gigliotti retired plays a Selmer in a
professional orchestra?

Ken

Kenneth Wolman Information Technology Morgan Stanley Inc.
750 Seventh Avenue New York, NY 212-762-1685
Life is the most precious possession you have, because without it you'd be
dead.

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