Klarinet Archive - Posting 000853.txt from 1999/02

From: "Brent Eresman" <Beresman@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: mouthpiece thread
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 08:07:00 -0500

Kevin Fay pisat (in part):
>
> --I do not understand, however, why the Vandorens or Woodwinds of the world
> don't throw a suitcase of money at one or more of these gentlemen and
> replicate some of the custom mouthpieces. It *should* be possible to have
> these things machined with an extremely close manufacturing tolerance, so
> you wouldn't have to be a virtuoso craftsman to make them. With a close to
> minimum-wage machine operator, enough of these could be sent to keep the
> price down to the store-bought mouthpiece level. Then students could afford
> them, too, no?
>
I am an engineer in a manufacturing environment. As you mention
earlier in your post "you tend to get what you pay for" and the same
is true for hired labor. I wouldn't want a close-to-minimum-wage
machine operator producing such close-tolerance parts. Too much room
for human error, even with state-of-the-art equipment. Then there's
quality control. Who would play test them to make sure they're
right? That's one "playing job" i don't think i could handle for
long...

In addition, we don't know how much of what these craftsmen do *can*
be translated into a CNC program. It may not be cost effective in
the long run to sink that much money up front into a project that may
not recoup that outlay quickly (most companies want their money
back in under a year. Short sighted, perhaps, but these are
businessmen running these places, not primarily musicians).

All my pessimism aside, i agree--it'd be nice to have that kind of
quality on a mass-produced basis. I just don't think it'd be that
much less expensive than what's available now.

Brent Eresman
beresman@-----.com

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