Klarinet Archive - Posting 000471.txt from 2004/02

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Costco Clarinets!!!
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 23:24:45 -0500

At 09:37 AM 2/27/2004 -0700, AnneLenoir wrote:
>I have a 4th grade student whose mom wants to get her a wood clarinet
>off of E-bay. I personally have never shopped on E-bay and have no
>desire to at this time. The mom said that she found Normandy clarinets
>on E-bay for $80, brand new. Could that be possible. Are Normandy
>clarintets made of wood. I knew that Noblet's were wood, but I can't
>remember having seen a Normandy in years.

I have seen both wood and plastic Normandys, which are the bottom end of
the Noblet line. The plastic ones are essentially identical to Vitos, the
wood ones to Noblets, but the wood is less select. The basic design,
keywork, and .584 bore is, to my knowledge, identical in all of them. Now,
of course, somebody COULD be using the Normandy name in an unauthorized
fashion on inferior Chinese imports, or maybe Leblanc has gone to using the
name on Asian imports, like Conn-Selmer has started using the old
(Buescher) Aristocrat name on some Taiwanese imports they are selling. By
the way, the Aristocrat AS-500 saxophones are INFINITELY superior to the
Elkhart-made AS-300s in features, feel, and sound.

I have in my possession right now a Chinese-made clarinet and an alto sax
sold under the name Glenn Edward. I will check them out over the weekend,
between playing shows of the Music Man (Reed 4 -- clarinet, bass clarinet
and flute), and let you know. Based upon a cursory inspection of the
clarinet, I do not expect to be favorably impressed.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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