Klarinet Archive - Posting 000780.txt from 2004/08

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Selecting a clarinet
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 22:46:53 -0400

John=A0J.=A0O'Neill wrote:

> Do our top players really choose a brand-name
> instrument for its playability, or is it all about
> money? I realize that top players can make a
> shoehorn sound good, but what about the rest of
> us who are limited by cost, geographical location,
> talent, etc?

It took me a moment to find the proper answer for that one:

An endorser's motivation or sincerity is not the issue.

Should you buy the same baseball bat that (say) Pete Rose used?
Chances are you don't have the same musculature or reflexes that he did,
and hence you need a completely different bat.

Probably you can depend on a world class player not to recommend a piece
of junk. You won't hear Pete Fountain or David Shifrin recommending
the "First Act" brand. But (IMO) that's about the limit of an
endorsement's applicability to your (or to my) situation.

By the way, I wrote:

> The same is probably true of clarinets and the
> clarinets that they play.

I meant: true of clarinetists and the clarinets they play.

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