Klarinet Archive - Posting 000579.txt from 1998/10

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Silver Plated Clarinets
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 23:50:32 -0400

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, James P Reed wrote:

> If a child starting to play a clarinet was to have gotten a used silver
> plated or metal clarinet in 1957 or 1958, what would the good models
> have been? And, do you have any ideas of what they would have cost
> used?

Well, let's see. I started playing in 1949, and my Pan American resonite
(plastic) clarinet cost about $125. Even then, in the part of the world
where I lived, there were no metal clarinets available which were regarded
as "good models." I don't think any were still being manufactured, but
some were available in pawn shops and from the US government as military
surplus. I had a friend who played one which he had "inherited" from his
father or uncle who had played it about the time of the first World
War. Our school owned a few which had been bought about the same time,
and we tried to sell them, but couldn't find any takers. I think we
eventually sold them to a pawn shop for $5 or $10 each.

By the late 50's, they were even more rare, but still further devalued. I
have learned since that there were a few higher-quality metal clarinets
made, double walled and of silver. However, this was a far cry from the
metal clarinets I knew.

If the student in your literary work actually had to play on a metal
clarinet, he or she would have been alternately pitied and ridiculed.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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