Klarinet Archive - Posting 000672.txt from 1999/05

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl]Hans Moennig's solution the Dark Clarinet Tone
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 09:33:07 -0400

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
>The reason as
> explained to me is that the market is too small to justify the expense
of
> the change. But in these days of CAD/CAM, can it be all that
difficult to
> completely redesign a horn, much less make small revisions?

In a word - yes. Here's three very expensive steps:
1) The older designs are currently not in any CAD format, so they'd need
to be digitized and entered.
2) Design changes need to be prototyped and tested
3) Tooling must be changed

Each of these costs need to be recouped. Just a relatively simple change
for Buffet which did not require design changes, the Greenlines,
incurred a major capital expense in machinery since the wood lathes that
have been paid for over the years could not be used for the new
clarinets.

Not that the companies _can't_ do it, but they look at the bottom line
and what people are willing to spend. Do you think that an Eb or C
clarinet costs _that_ much more to make than the Bb or A in material and
labor? Of course not - but the cost of the equipment to turn out those
clarinets is the same as the cost of the equipment that turns out the Bb
and A clarinets. The costs of the equipment must be amortized over a
much smaller base.

I'm not excusing any manufacturer from making an inferior product, but
if we keep buying them, they'll keep making them. You might want to
start looking at non-mainstream products and see if they'll suit you -
but expect to pay more. Rossi, Eaton, Fox, etc.
----
Mark Charette@-----.org/clarinet
"Cards by Aimee", http://www.sneezy.org/Aimee
"The phenomenon is too variable for proper study" often
translates from "I don't know how to get musicians to do
anything twice the same" - A. H. Benade

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