 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: VermontJM
Date: 2003-07-23 03:32
Just when I thought WalMart couldn't possibly get any lower... I walk out of the check-out (needed toothpaste) and saw (to my absolute HORROR) WalMart selling flutes, clarinets and trumpets. Grrrrr.... Just yet ANOTHER thing to have to warn my students about, because I KNOW that someone's parent or grandparent is going to run out and buy one thinking they got a great $200 deal, which I will spend hours tweaking to make it work.
They even had each instrument all set up in a (plastic) display case with a big sign that said "Great for School Band Programs!!" Did anyone ask the teachers RUNNING these programs about this? I think not...
That's it. No more WalMart trips for me... I mean what's next? "High Quality" reeds at Home Depot??
Jo
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Author: Clarinetbiter135
Date: 2003-07-23 03:39
What location are you? Wow... I love Wal-Mart but geez
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-07-23 12:36
It comes down to cost, and the 'glitz' factor.
Preteen kids are WOWed by bright and shiny gear, and since most don't practice anyway, these horns are a bargain.
Compare the cost of buying the POS Lottacrapistan makes to rentals and you can see the motivation.
School rental gear tends to be so badly mistreated, and the budgets for repair so low, that this is a natural purchase for well-meaning parents.
Go ahead, try telling YOUR eleven year old that a musty old Pruefer is better than a shiny new Xinhua horn.
G' head...
*******
I would like to see the numbers on how many starting players stay with ANY instrument. Kids are capricious, and trend conscious.
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Author: ken
Date: 2003-07-23 13:33
I just walked by one of those Wal-Mart clarinets yesterday (most likely a Chinese import) when shopping for other Wal-Mart garbage. It was in a plastic case along side a Wal-Mart flute and trumpet (brand name unknown). My students know better, but I feel bad for ignorant, bargain-seeking parents who want to buy a musical instrument for their kids. Every legitimate repair tech and store I know won't touch them, which effectively makes it disposable. The worst part, more than a handful of local "music stores" sell these atrocities beside the top 4 brands and market them as low-cost quality alternatives.
Someday, if I ever have the extra cash and half an unction, I'm going to buy one, assemble it and enjoy breaking it in half over my knee and harpoon it in the nearest trashcan. v/r Ken
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2003-07-23 13:33
The number of students continuing with an instrument is hard to find broken down in various catagories of instrument and length of time. Perhaps there are some statistical types out there with access to the real numbers? Depending on sources the numbers are different, but NAMM portrays the numbers in all catagories of instruments as 85% of musical instrument players have played less than three years. This of course is a huge market and the target of the major instrument manufacturers and now the importers of cheaply made instruments. It is also the target of manufacturers of accessories and use and care products that are also "less than perfect" - the new PC term for awful!
The Doctor
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Author: Bradley
Date: 2003-07-23 16:28
Wal Mart politics?
Anyway- it says the keys are "silver plated". Why would you waste silver plated keys on them anyway- but I guess this is a step up from "pot metal". When I was starting out my band director limited where we could buy clarinets from to the 4 or 5 music stores around the area. It seemed to work for him. He even gave us examples of a "real clarinet" (Selmers, Vitos and Yamahas) and then let us try an example of the garbage he picked up from JC Penny I believe, and after all of us were determined to get a decent clarinet despite what some parents said originally.
Bradley
( That post was meant for the other older thread, but right as I hit enter GBK seems to have [really] closed it, lol)
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2003-07-23 18:24
I strongly suspect most CSOs are not bought by parents, but rather by GRANDparents, aunts, uncles, and the like. Parents are more likely to ASK before plunking down a couple of hundred bux.
The most wonderful aspect of such instruments is that they are returnable. As they should be. If directors are more blunt and advise that these things are *NOT* "great for school band programs," and the stores are deluged with returns, maybe they will stop selling such bilge.
There are, of course, some who will say, "But we can't afford anything better." This is where all of us need to make people aware that a serviceable used instrument can often be had for less money than a new #*^%$.
Regards,
John
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-07-23 19:20
Well done, GBK, re: closing the older thread on WMT cls, its [overwhelming] presence will add to this thread, if what we-all say here is not enough!! Happily, I've been asked for some opinions [yes, NEGATIVE], and hope that more will ask before purchasing or at least before opening the case! I believe our usual recommendations are cls made by the Big 4, Selmer, Buffet, LeBlanc and Yamaha, OR a used inst, competently repaired. Others, please add! Its still "cavaet emptor" Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2003-07-23 19:35
Maybe IMS and WWBW should start selling barbecue pits and cheap housewares.
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-07-23 20:49
I really don't think it's too big of a deal, as far as affecting school band programs. I teach at several schools in Southeat Houston, and the bands "strongly encourage" all the kids to play E-11s, and they do have connections with instrument dealers, or at least the schools I teach at do.
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-07-24 01:33
I certainly hope no Wal-Mart attorneys read this thread.
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2003-07-24 03:11
Yikes. All the more reason to go to Target instead of Wal-Mart. It's classier and doesn't have that stink of enforced wholesomeness (a sort of River City thing) which Wal-Mart always exudes. Or, better yet, avoid chains altogether.
You can get a functioning, if old, Vito or Bundy for less than $200 (or just a little more) if you look around a bit. It's not even that good of a deal for a piece of #$*@$&.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-07-24 03:15
Micaela wrote:
> Yikes. All the more reason to go to Target instead of
> Wal-Mart. It's classier and doesn't have that stink of
> enforced wholesomeness (a sort of River City thing) which
> Wal-Mart always exudes.
Enough Wal-Mart bashing, OK?
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