Klarinet Archive - Posting 000085.txt from 2006/03

From: "Gary Smith" <gary622@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Test driving... Why?
Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 20:49:09 -0500

To stretch this analogy a bit further, if you're a serious clarinetist
you're a little more involved in your purchase than an average car
buyer is. I do test-drive cars before buying, and greatly prefer to
buy one off the lot for that reason (one among many). If the car
pulled to the right, I would want that fixed before I seriously
considered it. But I generally find one I like, drive it, and barring
a problem that's the one I negotiate on. I don't try 3-4 out to
compare acceleration, or seat cushiness, or whatever, among identical
models.

But I would imagine Jeff Gordon (an American race car driver, for
those across the pond or otherwise news-impaired) rarely takes a new
race car for a spin and says "perfect, don't change a thing!"

On the other hand, I (rather, my parents) bought my first horn, a
Noblet 40, and of course didn't try 3-4 copies. There are a lot of
clarinets bought and sold that way.

Finally, there is another consideration, and that is I bet if you
tried 10 Avalons, you would be unlikely to find a single one where the
doors didn't close, there were leaks in the manifold, etc., etc.
Sadly, such is NOT the case among some "top" brands of clarinet today,
not to name any names...

On 3/5/06, Matthew Lloyd <matthew@-----.uk> wrote:
> More to the point, how do you test drive a car (other than the dealer's
> own car) when you are ordering a brand new one made to your
> specification, as almost all cars are now in Europe?
>
> Matthew

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