Klarinet Archive - Posting 000586.txt from 1998/10

From: "Jim O'Briant" <jobriant@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Silver Plated Clarinets
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 00:17:54 -0400

James P Reed wrote, in part:

> 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?

In the late 1950's, in most areas of the country where there were serious
band programs, I doubt that a band director would have been thrilled to see a
metal clarinet in the hands of a beginner.

If the character in your book receive the clarinet from a family member who
had played it in the 1920's or 1930's, and could not afford any other
instrument, then the teacher might allow the student to begin on that
instrument. However, if the student or his/her family were purchasing a used
instrument, they would in all likelihood have been instructed by the teacher
to purchase a good used wooden clarinet (if possible and if within budget);
otherwise, they would probably have purchased a used hard rubber or resonite
(plastic) clarinet. All the non-metal clarinets would have been black in
color.

As of 1955-1960. student quality cornets, trumpets, trombones and flutes were
retailing for about $150.00 or so. Clarinets and alto saxes were more --
say, about $225 or so for a clarinet? You could usually find a decent used
one from a private owner for $50-$75, and then it would have needed another
$10-$40 in corks, pads, adjustments, etc., to be put in playing condition.

This was a lot of years ago, and I'm about the same age as your fictional
character (started on a $50 used trombone in 1957), and I'm working from
memory on all this. But I think I'm in the ball park on the prices, and I'm
confident in my estimation of a beginning band director's reaction to a metal
clarinet in that era.

Jim O'Briant
Bayside Music Press
Gilroy, CA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------