Klarinet Archive - Posting 000077.txt from 2000/03

From: "Musicstudents.com" <jonsmith@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] ligatures
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 14:26:30 -0500

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All this talk about ligatures has me wanting to put my two cents in.

I decided to produce a ligature when I modified my plain ligature and =
the effect seemed to be at least as good as my teacher's $75.00 =
ligature. It was certainly an improvement over the plain generic =
ligature! Anyway, it was possible to make them for a low price and so I =
decided to do it. The people who could really benefit from it would be =
students. A lot of frustration with learning clarinet can be avoided =
with a better ligature. So I decided to keep it simple and keep the =
price down.

Ligatures are not a really high volume item; even though they're cheap, =
they will probably last the life of the clarinet. So price isn't as big =
an issue as with, say, reeds, or groceries. Startup costs are high; I =
paid for a patent, and, since I don't have a metal shop, I had to have a =
batch of them made.=20

Each set of hands a product goes through makes the price double. If =
someone produces a ligature, which goes through a distributor who sells =
it to a retailer who sells it to you, that $20.00 price reflects a $2.50 =
unit cost. Packaging is expensive. The little jewel box with printing of =
the brand name, the little foam insert, the handling of putting those =
items together cost almost as much as the hunk of metal. The marketing =
is expensive, too, depending on how much of it you do. Generic ligatures =
don't do any marketing or packaging.

A lot of stores don't want to handle something so small. A more =
expensive ligature gives them more profit for the amount of time they =
have to spend dealing with it. I've had some suggestions to raise the =
price of my ligature to make it seem more valuable. But, I think there =
is a niche for a ligature that does what the expensive ligatures do for =
a price that doesn't scare a parent or student.=20

Jonathan Smith
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www.freedomligature.com

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