Klarinet Archive - Posting 000729.txt from 2000/08

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Plastic vs. Wood
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 19:03:40 -0400

From: "Bill Hausmann" <bhausmann1@-----.com>
> But if a clarinet
> were made of standard Bundy/Vito/Evette plastic to the exact same
> specifications and with the exact same care as a standard or Greenline
> R-13, would it play the same? Sometimes it almost seems that the
> manufacturers may be afraid of the results, and thus are unwilling to
> perform the experiment, or at least they keep it all TOP SECRET!!

In what way would it benefit them? The tooling required for a material other
than the wood they're currently using will cost them anew, and the wood
itself isn't all that different in cost than the quality plastic. Plastic
turning and finishing is a bit different than wood turning and finishing -
but the experience of most of the technicians at the factories will be in
wood ... Even if the final cost is the same, which will you choose, the wood
or plastic? There has to be a large enough body of people willing to buy the
new line to make it affordable to produce.

This, of course has nothing to do with acoustics, but everything to do with
the economics of producing a new line of clarinets. The Buffet Greenlines
currently (or did, at least) cost more to produce in toto than the standard
wood Buffets, but Buffet absorbs(ed) the cost differential to at least make
their substitute attractive to the consumer.

Mark C.

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