Klarinet Archive - Posting 000737.txt from 2000/08

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Plastic vs. Wood
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 19:42:42 -0400

Bill Hausmann posted:

<<<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!!>>>

This shouldn't be thought of as a hypothetical question. It's been done.
Howarth makes artist-level plastic horns; we just have not heard back from
anyone who has made the comparison.

It's also been done by our double-reed siblings in the orchestral row ahead
of us. Loree has made artist-grade oboes for *years* with plastic top
joints. My oboe-playing friends that have made the side-by-side comparison
(including but not limited to my wife) have told me that there is no
difference. I am certain -- at least as certain as one can be in relying on
their own ears -- that my wife's sound did not change one iota switching
back and forth from the 1/2 plastic to the all-wood horn. I was there. I
listened. Couldn't tell, even with my back turned as she tried to fool me.

What Mark said about the tooling is likely true -- which is why we paid a
$300 uplift to get the horn in plastic. Since it hasn't cracked -- even
after a (egads!) outdoor concert -- we consider this $$$ well spent.

Didn't Selmer do some behind-the-screen testing when the Bundy came out
(finding no perceptible difference)?

kjf

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