Klarinet Archive - Posting 000744.txt from 2000/08

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Plastic vs. Wood
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 20:51:52 -0400

At 04:42 PM 8/23/2000 -0700, Kevin Fay wrote:
>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.
>
I anxiously await their posting!

>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.
>
I guess oboists are less hide-bound traditionalists that clarinetists
(seems unlikely, but...)

>Didn't Selmer do some behind-the-screen testing when the Bundy came out
>(finding no perceptible difference)?
>
Could be, but the plastic Bundy came out a LONG time ago. They don't
exactly TRUMPET (play on words intended) the results, though, whichever way
they came out!

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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