Klarinet Archive - Posting 000447.txt from 2005/08

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Metal Alto clarinet
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:03:07 -0400

At 08:47 AM 8/24/2005 -0500, Lacy, Edwin wrote:
>Lelia Loban writes:
>
><<<(Bundies improved a lot in later years)>>>
>
>Well, they may have improved for a while, but then they got worse, and
>worse and worse. Eventually, they were such an embarrassment,
>associated in the minds of musicians everywhere with poor quality, that
>Selmer stopped using the brand name entirely. They changed the name of
>their instruments in that category to "Selmer Model 100" and "Selmer
>Model 200," hoping to cash in on whatever prestige may have been
>associated with the Selmer name.

Partly true, but the details are fuzzy. The Bundy 1400 and 1401 Bb
clarinets and the Bundy Alto and Bass clarinets and other woodwinds changed
relatively recently (10 years or so) to the Selmer name (and Bundy brasses
to the Bach name), largely to cash in on whatever cache the Selmer name (or
Bach) may have. But it was probably mostly because nobody remembered
anymore who George Bundy WAS, making his name valueless. Just because he,
in essence, founded the US Selmer Company, building it from the Selmer
Paris import business into a full-range manufacturer, why should his name
be considered important? On the other hand, the Selmer Signet/100 was
being built simultaneously with the Bundy line for many years. It shared
its bore design with the Bundy 1401 (.577), but was made of wood. The older
wood Bundys were of the 1400, large-bore design (.590), and phased out long
ago (1970's?). In any case, I do not believe perceptions of quality had
anything to do with it, since the Bundy/Selmer line is, generally speaking,
looked upon FAVORABLY by dealers, parents, band directors, and anyone other
than the Buffet-mezmerized. (Just a note: Practically every Buffet E-11
that has been shipped to our store lately has had SERIOUS quality issues,
the sort that even CHINESE manufacturers should be ashamed of, such as post
holes drilled all the way into the bore causing air leaks, etc. And the
last new R-13 I checked leaked like a sieve, too, with badly frayed tone
holes. I am not impressed.)

>When I play on these later instruments, it seems to me that they haven't
>quite "gotten it" yet. They have tried various marketing ploys; it is
>amazing that they apparently haven't thought of trying to make better
>quality instruments.
>
>Ed Lacy
>University of Evansville
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Bill Hausmann

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

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Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org