Klarinet Archive - Posting 001057.txt from 2003/04

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Remarkable Similarity.....
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:46:33 -0400

Last night I was working on a Vito (plastic) bass clarinet. Tonight I am working on a Yamaha YCL-220 U.S.A bass clarinet.

In most regards the mechanisms are identical. This includes a rather nasty design flaw in which you cannot get to the set screws that regulate the left hand stack keys because they are under the trill keys. (The upper and lower joints are semi-permanently attached).

What should be a 10 second adjustment becomes a ten minute dissassebbly and re-assembly.

Anyway, does anybody know why these two brand/models are so similar? Does LeBlanc make them for Yamaha? Did Yamaha hire a spy and steal the blueprints from a locked safe in Racine? I'd like to know.

Walter Grabner
www.clarinetxpress.com
bass clarinet repairs and mouthpieces

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