Klarinet Archive - Posting 000741.txt from 2000/08

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Plastic vs. Wood
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 20:25:45 -0400

At 07:03 PM 8/23/2000 -0400, Mark C. wrote:
>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.
>
Who said anything about marketing a LINE of plastic clarinets? I'd just
like them to make a few experimental models so the theory can be properly
TESTED, rather than endlessly discussed in "What if..." fashion. Might it
be that they actually FEAR that the plastic version will be equal,
destroying the "mystique" of wood? And/Or do they fear that, even if they
DID produce such an instrument, players would AVOID it in droves,
regardless of price? I'd like to see them do it just in the spirit of
scientific inquiry, because we really SHOULD know the answer to this question!

Bill Hausmann NEW ADDRESS: bhausmann1@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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