Klarinet Archive - Posting 000697.txt from 2002/10

From: Jeremy A Schiffer <schiffer@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Intonation on new clarinets and clarinet selection
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 12:18:33 -0500

On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Joseph Wakeling wrote:

> Rebecca Brennan wrote:
>
> > I've been looking at a beautiful Selmer clarinet
> > at a music store. It has unstained wood and gold
> > keys. They let me play it and I think it was very
> > easy for me to play. I had better intonation
> > on my old plastic vito though.

> The difference? The second shop had one of the best repair techs in
> Switzerland and he'd obviously spent a lot of time preparing the clarinets,
> whereas at the first shop I suspect they were just straight off the line
> from the Buffet factory.

It can also be a difference in the quality of the instruments for sale.
One of my old teachers explained to me, at one point, the way that new
instruments are distributed (at least, in America), and that your
geographical location will significantly impact the quality of the
instruments available to you. In short, if you have access to one of the
importers, in NYC or LA, you can get a top tier new instrument. The
further away you get, the lower the quality, as smaller stores and smaller
markets are shipped the instruments passed over by the major importers. In
Arizona, we were told to go to a specific shop in LA (can't remember the
name, but I'm sure someone on the list knows) if we were considering
buying a new R-13, because they were supposedly stocking much higher
quality instruments than the ones available through the stores in Tucson.
Sure enough, every person I knew who bought a new R-13 in Tucson from
1992-1995 (more than 5, less than 10, I think) had it crack within a few
months. Clearly, there were some quality issues with those instruments!

Of course, sometimes you just get lucky. A friend of a friend, when I was
in high school, found a slightly used Yamaha 72cx Bb at a music store in
Colorado when he was on vacation (he's a trumpet player). He bought it,
thinking he could resell it. I heard about it and gave it a whirl, so to
speak. I thought it sounded great, and took it to my then teacher, the
late John Denman, who was a Yamaha concert artist. He played on the
instrument, gave it a thorough inspection under a magnifying glass, handed
it back to me, and said "if you don't buy this, you're an idiot; it sounds
better than mine [a Yamaha Custom]" so I bought it, for probably half what
it was worth.

I guess my point is that it's always worthwhile to keep looking until the
right deal falls into your lap. If you're not happy with the things you're
trying out, don't buy them, or you will probably just regret it later. Oh,
and tell your friends that you're looking to buy a new instrument; if I
hadn't casually mentioned it to a friend who's a non-musician, who
happened to know the guy with the used 72, I never would have found this
great clarinet that I've been loving for the last eight years.

-Jeremy Schiffer

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Jeremy A. Schiffer
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