Klarinet Archive - Posting 000467.txt from 2003/08

From: "Martha E." <capeeire@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Replies to Questions, questions
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 17:50:49 -0400

Matthew Lloyd wrote:

>
>If you are looking at an Eb bear in mind that they are (as I am sure you
>recall) little beasts if you don't behave and treat them with respect.
>
Matthew - there's a "General" on a flute list that has similar
things to say about piccolos - might you be related? :)

>Get back to the clarinet - you won't regret it.
>
>Matthew Lloyd
>
Thanks for the reassurance, it helps counteract the choir
director's "but you play flute so well, what do you want to go and
change instruments for??"
<<>>

>
> Gary Van Cott wrote:
> Well the corks could probably use some cork grease. You probably
> don't want to be playing E-flat if you haven't touched a clarinet for
> years.
> ___
> Get the pad fixed, get a decent inexpensive mouthpiece if you don't
> have something good (like a Fobes Debut), and practice for a few
> months. Then you will be ready for some shopping.
>
> Gary

Ayup. My first line of attack - dousing them with grease. It
seems to have helped a bit. And, no, I wont' start right away on the
E-flat, that would be scary (we don't want to drive the neighbors away)
<<>>

> Bill Hausmann wrote:
>
>> If the instruments have been sitting idle that long, even under the
>> best of conditions, they probably need to be re-padded/re-corked.
>> This is common, everyday work for a repair shop. In the shop at the
>> store where I work, that would run around $110 each, but is often
>> higher in other locations, especially places like New York. Both of
>> those are student models (well, the Henri Pourcelle is maybe
>> intermediate, run of the mill French production) but either one is
>> WELL worth the money to re-pad.
>
It may be a student model but what I know about the Pourcelle is,
when I was 13 years old, a wooden clarinet with a fancy name *and* a
serial number - this was a big deal <g>
<<>>

> Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:
>
>>In your post, you said "..and stuff happened." If 'stuff' means that
>>you bashed your boyfriend over the head with your clarinet years ago and
>>bent all the rods, and this is why you quit playing.... well, this is a
>>different situation from just putting instruments in good condition in
>>their cases and opening the cases 20 years later. Maintenance is a
>>fact of life, and this is where a knowledgeable (and honest) technician
>>enters the picture.
>>
No, no, lol, (although, there was this one conductor . . .) I was
trying to be brief, leaving out things like dropping out of college,
packing away the instruments, moving to MN, being jobless, moving to
Denver, still jobless, back to MN, this time with a job just not a very
good one and, in the end, finances forced me back to MA where my
wonderful, loving parents took me back in.

I appreciate the quick responses - lots of answers narrow down the
questions to just one. Since the general consensus here seems to be to
get it repaired (and then practice, practice, practice and then go
shopping) so the question is: where are the repair people, the
technicians, the clarinet-fixer-uppers? The good, honest, knowledgeable
ones? I'd just bring it in to a local music store but - leaving out a
long story here - that's not going to happen unless it's the last and
only option. So, Worcester, MA is 45 minutes south, Manchester, NH is
35 minutes north, Boston is 1.5 hours east (but please, please, is there
someone closer).

Peace,
Martha E.

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