 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: systemxpert
Date: 2009-09-10 22:19
Hi there,
I am new to this board, but have been playing clarinet for 25 years..(yes I'm kinda old). Like many, I own a couple of clarinets that acquired over the years for various purposes. (Orchestra, Marching Band, Symphonic Band etc). Things used to be quite simple...get a good clarinet, good reeds, an inverted ligature and call it day. Now it seems like there are million different mouthpieces, barrels, ligatures, and bells...in essence a ton of different ways to customize a clarinet. Some what I have seen is indeed fluff, but some very legitmate.
What if one started a small business helping people find & purchase intermediate to entry level professional clarinets by restoring older ones and outfitting them with aftermarket upgrades? A target market of folks who had grown out of resonite bundys and Buffet B10-12 clarinets...but were not ready to spend thousands on a New Buffet R13 or Tosca type instrument.
Be honest...would you consider buying a restored Buffet R13 or Leblanc with a few upgrades in the 800-1400 range?? I know people buy restored instruments all the time...I myself own a used R13...but today's new instruments seem to have gotten really expensive. Also there are so many more options today for customization that if someone had the experience and knew what they were doing a custom clarinet could be created that could rival some of elite pro-level instruments...or at least I think so. Opinions??
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2009-09-11 07:43
I can see where you're coming from but I just wonder whether the sheer number of options would be the problem - what if someone said "I like the mouthpiece with this one but the bell with that one" or whatever? Would you be prepared to swap options for them or would it be a case of that combination or nothing? May be you could do a " design your own" service to those who came to try things out.
Vanessa.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-09-11 10:51
25 years heh? I've been playing more than twice that long so I guess that makes me "really old". I think your idea has some merit but I don't see a big market for it because I feel it is more of a local market rather than a national one. Many of the new bells and barrels are rather expensive and mouthpieces are so much more individual that I agree with Vanessa on that point. You would have to have a very large and diversified stock in order to be even partly successful. I think by the time you gave an intermediate clarinet a quality overhaul, a decent after market bell or barrel if needed and a good quality mouthpiece the person would be far better off buying a new clarinet. That way they can choose from a larger stock and pick one out that they like. The problem with many older clarinets is that many need bore work to get them to play in tune and that can be very problematic. I've seen some clarinets come back from well known tech people that still had intonation problems after the player had spent a good deal of money getting them restored. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: systemxpert
Date: 2009-09-11 11:33
Vanessa & Ed,
Thank you both for your input. I can see both of your points about customization options and older instrument intonation problems. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. No business has been started yet, just doing some research and mulling around some ideas.
Thanks
Bob
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