The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2004-12-17 14:09
True, squeeking, non-responding notes on B C's [and Bb's] badly needing TLC, is obviously frustrating to students and to me. I place a high priority on immediate consultation/repair/replacement. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: smross
Date: 2004-12-17 21:02
Doubtful. I feel bad for our bass players here at school that have to play on shoddy equipment and can't for the life of them figure out why they won't stop squeaking. Sheesh.
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Author: Robert Small
Date: 2004-12-18 05:19
The worst instrument I ever played was a Selmer (Bundy?) student model bass. I rented it for three months, had it in the shop twice (with no difference in how the thing played), and finally returned it to the store with about six weeks left on the rental. I hope it's sitting in a landfill somewhere.
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Author: BassClarinetGirl
Date: 2004-12-18 15:01
Depends on what you mean by a bad bass, lol. My friend and fellow bass clarinetist plays on the worst bass at our school- and she INSISTS on playing the piece of junk. She thinks my bass is a bigger peice of junk than hers, but the truth is that I can't even hear her when she's playing right next to me (and I'm on alto clarinet now, so she doesn't have much of an excuse). And her clarinet is the one that brought me to tears my freshman year, because it was so horrible to play and had NO depth of sound, before I switched it to the Selmer I'm playing now. I think the difference between a REAL piece of junk bass and a only mildly junky one is how the player adjusts to it- realizing that they might have to transpose high notes down an octave in their head, stuff like that.
And for the record, a piece of junk Tenor Sax is WAY WAY WAY worse than any of the bad basses I've ever played. When I started Jazz Band my freshman year at the high school, I used my cousin's old horn (a really really horrible tenor belonging to the school) and you litterally had to swivel the neckpiece to get different registers out.
Beck
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Author: Igloo Bob
Date: 2004-12-18 21:37
Quote:
I hope it's sitting in a landfill somewhere.
More likely is that it's being played by some poor sap in a high school band. The cheaper a product is, the more likely most school districts are to go for it. I can't wait until they find out about BandNow...
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Author: Robert Small
Date: 2004-12-19 03:31
If that bass ever found its' way into a school bandroom I would hope the band director would be on the ball enough to weed out such an instrument. We don't do kids any favor when we give them unplayable instruments. When I was in school (many moons ago) the band had a good supply of decent student horns and even a few pro model horns. Don't know what things are like these days. Some of the current student lines of horns are reportedly pretty good. But that Selmer student bass was awful. If Selmer (or Selmer USA) can't make a better student bass than that they should just drop it from their line.
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Author: Contra
Date: 2004-12-19 05:10
Selmer does have a good bass clarinet. the 1430P that I used to play on did great.
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Author: mkybrain
Date: 2004-12-19 06:43
what about an eefer(a bad one or just any, lol), i have no experience with it but i have heard complaints
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Author: Dori
Date: 2004-12-19 21:23
Unfortunately, not all band directors will replace a bad instrument, whether because they don't know enough to judge that it is bad, they don't feel that instrument's sound is important, or there is no money in the budget to repair or replace it.
The result is frustrated players, some of whom will simply quit playing. A high school friend dropped out of band when the director wouldn't authorize repairs even when her mother offered to pay for it! At another school, a basson player told me that when her bad instrument was finally unplayable, she was able to borrow one from another school and suddenly could play music several grades more difficult.
For jjclarinet, the original poster: I hope you can get your instrument repaired before you quit in frustration. Let us know how things turn out.
Post Edited (2004-12-20 18:51)
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Author: Aussiegirl
Date: 2004-12-27 07:28
Bad bari sax! The one i was used to playing at my school had, at times, been held together with ducktape, had a lollipop stick holding down a rod, and got dropped off a table. And little clarinetplaying me thought it was just me that couldnt hit those low a's...
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-12-27 07:45
Is there anything harder to play than a bad bass clarinet you ask?
Sure.
Anything that puts you in earshot of me!
Ba-dum CRASH!
US Army Japan Band
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2004-12-27 12:33
But a good bari sax is ecstacy to play... They should replace Bass Clarinets!
__________________
Don't hate me because I play Leblanc! Buffet
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Author: kal
Date: 2004-12-28 04:00
>how about a bad contrabass?
I see you too have faced off with the Leblanc paperclip contra...
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