Klarinet Archive - Posting 000937.txt from 2000/08

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Which one? (Uh-oh...newby alert!)
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 18:00:06 -0400

Mike Selvey asked:

<<<After reviewing my research and the prices, I have settled on four
possible candidates to acquire through online purchase. My question
(finally!)to this list is:

Which of these four clarinets would you recommend for my daughter, and why?

Selmer CL200.................$510.00
Buffet E-11......................$599.00
LeBlanc Normandy-4......$539.00
Yamaha YCL-34............$569.00>>>

Mike--

I am a sometime professional clarinet player and teacher (i.e., with a day
job) with some familiarity with each of these horns. There are other, more
experienced professional musicians on the list, and a passel of university
professors of clarinet. There is much expertise here for you.

I am incensed -- no, livid! -- at the highway robbery about to be pushed
onto these poor students. The instrument that is being foisted on the
students is pretty much the same as the Selmer CL200, which in my opinion is
by far the worst of the 4 instruments that you list. My preference would be
for the Buffet, as I know several professional musicians who successfully
use that model in the orchestra pit of the musical theatre in which I play
from time to time. I suspect that the Yamaha is comparable. I own and use
both Buffet and Yamaha clarinets on gigs, they are fine.

The true robbery here is that you're spending way too much money. While
these are fine clarinets, to be sure, I believe that your daughter would be
better off with the less expensive plastic horn produced by either Buffet
(the B12?) or Yamaha (the YCL24?). I have played both, and they are very,
very good clarinets, far better than the one that I started on. The plastic
body will be much more resistant to the wear and tear that young people
inevitably put them through, and for a student of that age there will be
exactly zero difference in the quality of the sound they will get. None,
zip. nada.

I have always started students on the student horns. If they outgrow them
-- through proficiency -- it's better at that point to go directly to the
professional grade instrument rather than get an "intermediate" one. If
they get really good, you are going to spring for the pro-level horn in any
event, and until that point it just doesn't make any difference.

Please don't waste the money. Go plastic, and spend the difference on a
good mouthpiece (which is a MUCH more critical item). The archives will
give you all kinds of info on great student mouthpieces, but you can't go
wrong (IMHO, of course) with a Hite Premier or a Fobes Debut.

. . . all my opinion, of course. But I've done this before.

kjf

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