Klarinet Archive - Posting 000398.txt from 2005/01

From: Rob <roomberg@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] NEW $75
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 06:58:46 -0500

Interesting advice...spend $1000.... but wait minute.... I'm not
asking about $75 clarinets for my daughter. Its for me to learn how to
play the clarinet, not my daughter.
My daughter is a senior in high school now and been playing 7 years in
school orchestra and marching band. She also played saxophone and then
baritone sax in the school jazz band.
The school provides the saxes.
She does not play anything unless prompted in a school setting and it
looks like its the end of the music line unless she does something in
college.......... and thats unknown at this time.
We bought the ebay cheap used wooden clarinets because the price was
feasable, not because we needed a new clarinet.
As I fooled around with them I concluded I could enjoy playing this
instrument.

Which brings me back to the $75 question.
Is there any thing wrong with these $75 clarinets?
Is there any difference between these brand new ebay $75 clarinets
and the $300 clarinet that I paid $32 monthly on in the band instrument
program when I got my daughters clarinet seven years ago?

I just don't know who to trust when it comes to musical instruments.
I bought a Samick electric quitar for $450 and 4 years later found
out that should have cost $250. Its a matter of shopping around and
now that ebay lets you instantly see ALL the competition they battle
on pricing downward, not upward.
I bought an eletric violin for $135 on ebay, brand new, original
packaging. Its a wonderful instrument. I can not buy an electric violin
in any store for anything near that cheap price.
I went to New York and bought a Jean Baptiste pocket trumpet at Sam Ash
Music for $225 then found Sam Ash sells it online for $169 and you can
go to Amazon.com and they sell under the name Bandnow for $169
BUT
go to ebay and that same pocket trumpet can be bought for $85 to $100.
I'm NOT talking about the Indian trumpets from Tristar.

So that leaves me thinking that as long as the public relied on a band
instrument sales rep coming to school and we always bought from that one
rep, we never knew we could get beginner instruments any cheaper.
we just signed up for monthly payments , whatever they told us , and
didn't argue with the price tag.
The retail price in the stores was always too pricey so we just winced
and chalked it off as the going rate.

The Indian Tristar instruments seem to be the lowest in the measure of
quality and then the Asians are doing nice work with brass and wood.
So where do we stand with the $75 ebay clarinets for use as a beginners
first clarinet? Who makes them? I think China?

blacklover wrote:
> If you really love your daughter buy her a nice clarinet in a store,not
> on ebay!Let her try buffet or leblanc and let her choose within your
> budget (good clarinet costs at least 1000 euro)!She'll thank you for it!!
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob" <roomberg@-----.net>
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 9:13 AM
> Subject: [kl] NEW $75
>
>
>> My daughter got to play with the old new toys.
>> The lowest notes played fine but the higher notes squeeked terrible
>> and some made air..no reed vibration at all.
>> She said her plastic clarinet played much better.
>> Ok... not a surprise here..... ya get what ya pay for....and $36
>> doesn't pay for much.
>> The local music store here reported that he sends away clarinets and
>> repadding costs $150. So we will not be doing that anytime soon.
>>
>> So back to ebay.....
>> Ebay commonly sells new clarinets for $75 to $100.
>> Some sellers do $50 then $25 shipping....so it adds up to $75.
>>
>> Is there anything wrong with these $75 clarinets ?
>>
>> I went down this path with trumpets and was told that the Indian brass
>> instrument industry is worthless crap and that Cosco and walmart sell
>> this trash and was warned away from $75 trumpets.
>> So I bought a used Conn 20b trumpet and a conn director cornet thats
>> as old as me an slides and valves are fine.
>>
>> WHAT ABOUT CLARINETS?????
>>
>> Are the Asian clarinets as bad news as the brass instruments?
>> Would anyone tell me to not buy a brand new clarinet on ebay for $75
>> to learn on?
>>
>>
>>
>> And what about the yellow, purple, red and white clarinets?
>> Are they all made of the same type of plastic and the bright color
>> clarinets are really no different than a black clarinets?
>>
>> I was wondering about the plastic being different because certain
>> plastics have different traits and I didn't know if all clarinet
>> plastics are equal in sound properties.
>>
>>
>>

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