Klarinet Archive - Posting 000571.txt from 2000/12

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] Instrument Quality
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 15:26:00 -0500

<><> Joshua Gardner wrote:
Is there a difference between the quality of professional clarinets
(specifically the
R-13) bought in retail stores and those bought out of mail-order
catalogs? Just curious. Is it better to buy directly from the
manufacturer?

IMO: No two instruments, even of the same manufacturer and model,
are identical. What counts is to play a particular instrument
yourself. Ditto for used instruments, which in my case happened to
fill my needs better than a new instrument.
'Setting up' an instrument is part of the deal and can have an
effect on the instrument. 'Setting up' often includes the vendor
rejecting certain instruments in the first place and refusing to even
mess with them. Each vendor will argue that they do the best job of
inspecting and setting up instruments, and I suppose that somewhere
there is a market for rejected instruments; but other than vendors (if
any) who sell such instruments by choice, I don't think that anyone
would say that local vs. mail order vendors are doomed (as a class) to
sell lower quality instruments.
Many (all?) mail order houses have a method of trying an
instrument, the same as trying mouthpieces. Also, the major 'mail
order houses' have their own retail stores and they have booths at
clarinet festivals, and if you're near enough to them, you can make a
day trip to them and test instruments.

IMO, of course.

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