Klarinet Archive - Posting 000002.txt from 2004/02

From: Tom.Henson@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] B Stock Rossi Clarinet
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 02:35:31 -0500

Jim,

I just purchased a French bore black wood Rossi from WW&BW about 3 weeks
ago.

I saw the B stock for $2700.00. They also had listed at that time a
"closeout" for $2999.00.

I called the store and this is what I found out.

I talked to a very nice man by the name of Dwayne. He is actually s string
person, but he answered the phone and was very helpful.

He told me that the entire history of each instrument is in their computer
system. He told me the B stock had been there over 5 years and that it had
been out on quite a few trials. He said every trial is logged and even when
the clarinet was worked on by the shop. Even the customer comments were
entered into the system in some cases when it was returned from trial.

Anyway, I told him I was not interested in the B stock, but was interested
in the "closeout" for $2999.00. He told me that they had two French bore
black wood clarinets listed as closeouts. He gave me the serial number of
each clarinet and then after some searching told me the exact day they
arrived in stock from Chile.

The two serial numbers were F255 and F560. He told me the F255 arrived in
1998 and was 5 years old. He told me that F560 had just arrived on
10/29/2003. He did not understand why this newer one was listed as a
closeout. He told me that this clarinet had only been sent out on trial ONE
time. It was sent to Jim Kanter in Hollywood. That's the Jim Kanter that is
listed on the Peter Eaton website. He had both the F255 and F560 sent to him
for trial. He ended up sending both of them back. He noted that F255 had to
be taken to a local shop in LA to have some minor adjustments and a pad
replaced so that he could play it. He also noted that he did not consider
F255 to be in tip top shape and should be worked on.

Needless to say, I had both of them sent to me on trial. I had no intention
of buying the older one, but I wanted to compare a 5+ year of Rossi to a new
one so that I could make note of all the differences. Please let me know if
you want me to email you off list with all of my observations.

Dwayne also told me that he did not understand why F560, being brand new,
was being sold for under their cost. Well, I ended up buying F560 for $800
less than the price of a new one from WW&BW and about $800-900 less than if
I would have ordered it directly from Luis himself.

I can't tell you absolutely happy I am with this clarinet. It plays
wonderfully. I also loved the sound of F255, but would not have bought it
even at $2999 due to the many improvements that Luis had made. I took F560
apart just to inspect and clean up the keys to remove some dust. It was
really brand new and not even broken in at all. F255 had evidence of being
played, but even that clarinet in the hands of a repair tech would look
brand new also. That is a testament to the quality of manufacture of these
instruments.

By the way, F255 had been returned to stock at WW&BW. You can now see it
listed as a "closeout" for $3415. Go figure!

Tom Henson

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Lytthans [mailto:lytthans@-----.net]
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 7:01 PM
To: Klarinet Digest (Mail)
Subject: [kl] B Stock Rossi Clarinet

I ordered a B stock Rossi French bore clarinet on approval from WWBW, which
arrived today. It was totally unplayable out of the box! I spend a good
hour adjusting key heights, etc., just to make it marginally playable. It
still is not perfectly in adjustment, and no local repairman will touch it,
IMO. BTW, the sound is absolutely gorgeous, when it works.

To be fair, I've bought many instrument, including my current Buffets, from
WWBW and have been very satisfied. I just can't believe that they would
send a clarinet, even a B stock, so out of adjustment. It's, of course,
going back after the 45 day trial period. I'll work on it a bit more.
$2700 is still too much for an unplayable horn. Maybe I'll fly down to
Santiago, Chile and have my good friend Luis work on it! And then send the
bill to WWBW..........

---------
Jim Lytthans
Anaheim, CA

---------------------------------------------------------------------
send email to clarinet-subscribe@-----.org Klarinet is a service of
Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org