Klarinet Archive - Posting 000753.txt from 2000/08

From: les debusk <sflane@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Plastic vs. Wood
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 23:11:20 -0400

Very well put... thank you.. it does need to be done...
Les DeBusk

Bill Hausmann wrote:

> 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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