Klarinet Archive - Posting 000059.txt from 2000/05

From: "Franklin Kercher" <kranwli@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Metal clarinets
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 18:06:45 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Callahan <kionon@-----.com>
Date: Monday, May 01, 2000 10:18 PM
Subject: [kl] Metal clarinets

>
>For the first time in my life last friday, I saw a metal clarinet.
>Unfortunately it was non-functional, and even if it was my band director
>refused to let me play it :( Well, this got me thinking, I've read about
>them, even seen pictures of them, but only rarely; why didn't metal
>clarinets catch on? Donny, a trumpet/trombone doubler friend of mine, said
>because they turn green too easily, do they really corrode that badly?
>
>Kevin Callahan
>If Dr. Trent makes a lamp out of that clarinet, I want it.
>
>
Before WW2, metal clarinets were mass produced by thr thousands to fill a
huge growing market for tough, durable, low maintainance clarinets (schools
mostly). Most of these were produced by more companies than you have fingers
and toes to cash in on this market. Most of these companies spent more on
advertising than on perfecting their product, so most were terrible sounding
clunkers made worse by poor mouthpieces and inexperienced students playing
them. There were some good sounding quality ones made, but the reputation
was already hard set, and with the vast improvements in plastics during and
just after the war, the better companies quit making them to save their
reputations. Of the three I have restored, only one sounds decent.

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