Klarinet Archive - Posting 000538.txt from 2005/06

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] metal clarinets
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 19:34:23 -0400

Well I had my one-piece metal clarinet as a schoolboy. It is no heavier to
carry around, and much faster to assemble and dismantle. The case is longer
but skinnier. No big deal. I wasn't talking about bass clarinets.

I suspect the sales perceptions do have a lot to do with it. Cost - the
mould is more expensive but the subsequent operations cheaper. So it only
depends on numbers.

Keith

> Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 11:14:58 -0400
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
> Subject: Re: [kl] metal clarinets
> Message-id: <6.2.1.2.0.20050626110447.04080d88@-----.com>
>
> And consider the case of the "one-piece" student bass clarinet.
>
> Anyone who has ever had to carry one of these cases around
> (as a student or
> otherwise) learns real quickly why being able to take the two
> middle joints apart is a ReallyGoodThing<tm>. The solution to
> dealing with such bass clarinet cases, as I expect the
> solution would be if a student were given a one piece
> clarinet case, is as easy as never taking the instrument
> home, unfortunately.
>
> Yeah, I know, kids who play soprano saxophone don't have this
> problem.
> Except that, mercifully for *so* many reasons, the average
> middle school and even early high school student doesn't have
> to carry a soprano sax on the school bus. That and saxophones
> are "cool" <sigh>.
>
> -Adam
>
> At 10:54 AM 6/26/2005, Karl Krelove wrote:
> >There's also a very practical reason from the sales side of
> the process
> >- many (not all) kids at least in American public school systems are
> >interested in trying a new instrument in inverse proportion
> to the size
> >of the instrument. The first criterion a 9 or 10 year old
> child applies
> >is "What did my parents say I should play?" (Usually, there's one of
> >those packed away at home or at a relative's home already).
> The second
> >is "How hard is it to carry to school?" The bigger the case,
> the harder
> >the instrument *looks* to carry to and from school once or twice a
> >week. A standard student-level clarinet case is much smaller
> *looking*
> >than the long case that must house a one-piece instrument.
>
> ------------------------------

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