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 Have you ever noticed?
Author: SVClarinet09 
Date:   2006-10-30 19:20

That we clarinet players, as a whole, tend to be the pickiest out of all when it comes to instruments. Sure brass players believe that "silver gives a better sound" and that the bell shape helps but what about us? We by far have to be the musicians willing to spend the most money. I mean look at mouthpieces. We talk about the chamber and the rail and the table length and tip opening, then we have barrels where theres the moenig, and the reversed tapered, and the synthetics, and bells. I thought bells made no difference at all, I was wrong. I bell from my Selmer Paris onto my Selmer USA made a HUGe difference. Then we have the materials we can make our instruments out of. Cocobolo, Rosewood, Grenadilla, Rubber, etc. Our pads can be made out of gore-tex, leather, fish skin. We clarinet players have to be some of the most complicated musicians ever.

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: GBK 
Date:   2006-10-30 19:26

You obviously have never talked to a professional flutist ...GBK

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: Mark Charette 
Date:   2006-10-30 20:15

Or string players with bows? Just one good bow will set you back five figures.

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: tictactux 2017
Date:   2006-10-30 20:38

Do string players make their bows themselves like oboists make their own reeds?

Whoevers muses about musicians and their equipment should check out the cosmetics corner,err,floor,err,wing in the big department stores... [tongue]

--
Ben

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: EuGeneSee 
Date:   2006-10-30 21:51

Considering how much many of those folks spend for their violins, 5 grand for a bow is a bargain . . . then if you look at the ones that invest 6 or 7 figures in their Strad, Amati, Guenarius (sp), etc - what do they invest in bows? Eu

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: tictactux 2017
Date:   2006-10-30 21:56

EuGeneSee wrote:

> Considering how much many of those folks spend for their
> violins, 5 grand for a bow is a bargain . . . then if you look
> at the ones that invest 6 or 7 figures in their Strad, Amati,
> Guenarius (sp), etc - what do they invest in bows? Eu

Yep. Clarinetists are the most modest of 'em all. :)

--
Ben

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: D 
Date:   2006-10-30 22:24

I always thought the recorder was a cheap instrument, until I got to know lots of players and realised that they seem to have a different recorder for each piece of music..........

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: Cuisleannach 
Date:   2006-10-31 02:08

Clarinets are actually among the cheapest of the woodwind instruments. A good flute head joint runs about the same as two clarinets. Oboes and saxes are more expensive and bassoons cost more than good cars. I've never met anyone as hard to please on repairs as flutists (they want the exact precise tension on the key springs as they had before you replaced them), although sax players come close.

Most brass players are pretty easy to please but trombonists can be nightmares. They can literally spend hours tossing about model numbers of instruments and mouthpieces and be perfectly happy.

By comparison, clarinettists are pretty happy-go-lucky and our equipment is rather cheap and relatively easy to work on.

-Randy

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: ChrisArcand 
Date:   2006-10-31 04:11

I would agree. In my experience, while we clarinetists have many different views on barrels, mouthpieces, reeds, bells, pads, materials, etc, etc, all of these things are "cheap", in relative terms. Bows and strings were the first thing to come to mind, knowing that major symphony players have spent over $100,000....on their bow. Oboes are also quite more expensive, from what I understand.

As far as talking about sheer quantity of "stuff", I would have to say that trumpet players are the worst. They have so much stuff to deal with all the time - And I don't even know what half the crap does!

-Chris



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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: bawa 
Date:   2006-10-31 06:19

Strings...not only professionals..have you talked to even a good student?

You could buy 5 decent clarinets before you could get a decent level violin of a good modern maker. Its not only Strads and Amatis, I wish it were!!! And then you have to find a bow to match....

As for mouthpiece/barrel/bell discussions, look up the ones on strings (brands/types) and then combinations of the same.

Being the parent of two who play the clarinet and violin, I know which one is the easier to cope with: OK I have so far bought a prof Bb clarinet, an Eb clarinet, and separately, a mouthpiece for each, a new ligature, a carrying case and am looking to buy a new barrel and have drawerfull of reeds and surfacer, clarinet patches, 3 swabs, rice paper, to say nothing of all those Dr's excellent Products.

For violin I am just dreading simply the move up to a full-size instrument from a 3/4s which is going to come any moment now.

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: Tony Beck 
Date:   2006-10-31 12:44

I’m convinced that one of the reasons so many clarinet players have such bad cases of GAS is that the gear is relatively inexpensive. It’s not hard to acquire a large bore, small bore, polycylindrical, full Boehm, Eb, A, Alto and on and on, not to mention a dozen mouthpieces, barrels, a few dozen (or hundred) reeds, a reed machine, and on and on.

Last spring my band played a gig with another group. Their bassoonist was playing his new instrument. The price of that horn would cover all my clarinets, clarinet gear, and my Maserati, with lots of money left over!

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: Koo Young Chung 
Date:   2006-10-31 13:03

String instruments are a lot more expensive than clarinets.
But finding the right combination is not that difficult.Genarally speaking
best violin and best bows within your budget usually works best.There is no such thing matching violin and bow and strings like mouthpiece,reeds,barrel etc.
For violin it is rather straight forward.and it is rather simple to separate each components.

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: David Spiegelthal 2017
Date:   2006-10-31 15:36

I think oboists have us beat for 'instrument-pickiness'.

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 Re: Have you ever noticed?
Author: Old Geezer 
Date:   2006-10-31 16:17

Have you ever noticed GAS is a lot of fun?

UPS delivers a selection of new mouthpieces...is the one that's the one in there?

If it is or isn't...the suspense is heady!

You're about to open a new box of reeds...is the one that's playable out of the box forever in there?

You're about to test play a new clarinet everyone says is the precursor of a new age...the longing, the anticiapation, the hope....

Clarinet Redux

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