Klarinet Archive - Posting 000698.txt from 1999/05

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl]Hans Moennig's solution the Dark Clarinet Tone
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 18:01:10 -0400

> But where do you draw the line between customization and fixing
> deficiencies?

You've already defined that Bill. Reseat a pad, set a key straight that
may have bent in shipping, readjustments at the shop by the tech., etc.
For a professional player however, one that is going to use it for
different things, there may be an adjustment to the mouthpiece/barrel
combination (as Brannen does for mine), the keys may be preferred higher
on the bass clarinet and pitch on a throat tone undercut slightly to
accomodate the player. These are the kinds of customizations that
professionals would expect a technician to do - and it is worth paying a
second market technician such as Brannen, Sayre, or any other fine
craftsman to do that specialized work.

Why don't they just sell you a billet of wood and let your
> local technician customize it from there?

I am sure you are simply being facetious with that comment!

> I have said it before, and I am
> saying it again, manufacturers MUST provide a correctly playing instrument,
> properly regulated and ready to perform in a professional environment
> WITHOUT further modification (maybe ***FREE*** minor adjustment, available
> on-site at ANY dealer) or they are selling you a bill of goods.

I could play a Vito professionally in a symphony orchestra - in fact, I
have (on bass clarinet). It is the amount of work a person has to do to
get the instrument to play the way they want it to for them that requires
customization sometimes.

> Any
> modification beyond that point is entirely up to the individual, and is
> perfectly OK in my book, but in no way should it be REQUIRED to get a
> properly functioning instrument.

I don't think there is a requirement in the case of the professional line
Buffets, Selmers or Leblancs - Yamahas also. I guess I'm not sure why you
are complaining?
Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director - Concert Band, Symphonic Winds & Titan Band
Advisor - Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University

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