 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Nate Zeien
Date: 2000-12-12 22:38
*grins* Hmmm... Looks like a good way of hiding a missing key, if you ask me. If they couldn't figure out how to put it back together, who says all the parts will be there? To the someone who is unexperienced with clarinet, making everything fit back together can be as tedious as these gas grills that say on the box in tiny letters "Some Assembly May Be Required". May be required? I think they know quite well that it IS required. Just my opinion... -- Nate Zeien
PS - And all of this is brought to you by the same country that sells hot dogs in packages of 10, and buns in 8. Also, has anyone else wondered about the Braille letters on the drive through ATM?
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-12-12 22:56
LOL!!! I once saw a baritone sax in Humpty Dumpty condition at a flea market. The sax lay in the case and the keys were all helter-skelter in a cardboard box. Evidently the owner decided to re-pad the sax himself and save some money. Once he'd taken all the keys off the sax and jumbled them out of context, he couldn't figure out how to fit everything back together again. That was the story, anyway. I tried to mentally reassemble this mess in order to sort out whether anything was missing, but decided not to bet on being right. Anyhow, it was only a Bundy. If it had been a Selmer Mark VI, I might have gotten more ambitious.... ;-) But I hope this eBay clarinet will convince budding do-it-yourselfers, as the baritone salad convinced me, that it's a good idea to keep a detailed chart of where everything goes and what order to reassemble things!
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Author: J. Butler
Date: 2000-12-12 23:27
This may be an shop's old parts horn or as I call them "cadavers" Upon close examination it looks as if the tone holes (chimneys) on the lower joint are busted off as well. I didn't see a barrel either.
John
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Author: ron b
Date: 2000-12-13 01:16
MW (Mark ?) -
I just bought a similar Vito 'parts horn'. The lower joint is shot. I call 'em cadavers too, John - or parts or junk or whatever. I don't buy them for playability. I fix horns and the keys and some parts at times come in handy. You'd be surprised at what instrument pieces grade school kids can 'lose'. While the cadaver is no longer of any use as a player, its parts are still acceptable replacements for another not-to-far gone one.
If they're cheap enough... I buy 'em. :]
The one you refer to, while a *little* high, price-wise, has an okay case. I never seem to have enough okay cases....
ron b
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Author: Pam
Date: 2000-12-13 02:28
Hey, but it comes with a "nice case". Don't ya just love that line when someone is selling who knows what.
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Author: mw
Date: 2000-12-13 03:20
William --- I am *STILL* laughing ! Ron --- Yes, its me (Mark W.). mw
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Author: ron b
Date: 2000-12-13 07:18
Hi, Mark -
You need to take your horn to techs who hang out in the better neighborhoods.
Or... did you work on it a little bit before you took it there?
... hey, Sam! : o (lookathis!!!)
ron b
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2000-12-13 15:10
Maybe the "callsign" of the buyer (for $29.95) says it all. It's <junquemonkey@aol.com>. By careful thought I have escaped the "apostrophe police" currently at work on the "Klarinet List."
Bob A
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2000-12-13 15:34
For some reason the "sign" of the buyer was snipped from my post. Mark did you do that? Spoiled the joke. The sign the buyer used was "junquemonkey@aol.com."
Bob A
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2000-12-13 16:44
they had 12 bids on the piece of junk. I don't think the case was worth the $29 bucks.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-12-13 18:00
No - if you included it in angle brackets w/o the href then the system will "eat" it.
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Author: Douglas
Date: 2000-12-13 21:18
How do you crack a plastic clarinet? With a nut cracker and a sense of satisfaction.
Speaking of things seen on the internet, how about the ad selling a clarinet with a "caring" case. We could all use of of those.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-12-14 01:02
How do you crack a plastic clarinet? After falling through the bleechers to a concrete slab 20 feet below, the only thing I could salvage of my daughters Vito was the barrel and a few keys.
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Author: Ken
Date: 2000-12-14 09:46
I would sure hate being forced to do a recount on all those keys.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2000-12-14 12:50
If all the keys were there they could have spread them out in the photo and I and many others could tell in seconds if they were all there. I agree they were perhaps trying to hide the missing ones.
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Author: mw
Date: 2000-12-14 15:51
Gordon said:
"If all the keys were there they could have spread them out in the photo and I and many others could tell in seconds if they were all there. I agree they were perhaps trying to hide the missing ones."
------------------------------------
The auction description stated very clearly :
"Vito plastic clarinet, clarinet is a PROJECT, needs lots of TLC, has cracks missing parts etc."
Trying to hide what ??? Seems to me that some folks are unnecessarily negative about eBay for the no apparent reason. Is the glass half-full or half-empty?
This eBay auction seller has a pretty impeccable record & started this auction at $9.99, I fail to see any malice aforethought. You don't go through 252 auctions without meeting a lot of nutty buyers. This guy has bent over backwards to keep a clean slate & is to be commended. (I don't know this guy from Adam, but that much is obvious to me)
mw
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Author: ron b
Date: 2000-12-14 19:02
If I may, please... just as a *footnote, of sorts.
I am the one who bought the Vito parts. I didn't count the keys - didn't have to.
Yes, I too get a good laugh at some of the nutty stuff on eBay. Who wouldn't? Some of it's hilarious.
I bid on the Vito parts for a number of reasons. Playability was NOT a consideration - price was a factor. (I paid for it out of petty cash, by the way). The seller's feedback and upfront description also had something to do with it. I've said before and I'll repeat - to date, I've never been burned by an eBay seller. The 'horn's' case is not shot :o)
Since I retired I've returned to doing something that once gave me great pleasure and satisfaction; repairing musical instruments. For various reasons I abandoned that line of work long ago. Now I'm happy to - on a small scale  to be able persue it again. An added benefit is that now I can take 'my time' doing it. I don't have a 'boss' - I *do* have an 'advisor'. (A little aside here, if I may; Don't try this at home without one (an advisor). I will not, do not, try to steal business from anyone.
For the present I do clarinets *only*. Possibly next year I'll do more, maybe not. I don't know. I do not advertise my services but, for most of my work, I charge going rates. If I can't handle a job I recommend a local tech who can. I know my limits. I will not butcher your horn.
For some of my work I do not charge. I'm aware that some parents (especially with kids in private schools) are hard pressed to find the extra money for things like musical instruments. That's where I can help in a small way. Those pads just never seem to last a whole season and kids, in some mysterious ways that even palgue some adults, always seem to 'lose' a part here or there.
I'm sure you know the rest of the story. A smiling, happy face is all the payment I'm prepared to accept.
So... I learn something new every day about repair work - I don't even pretend to know a lot - and I'm rewarded from time to time with a big smile (a little one, or even an 'inside one', will do just as well).
I still get a chuckle or a laugh or even a big laugh at some of the outrageous things on eBay (do you follow the brass horns? well....(stop, rb) - - - anyway, sometimes I bid on something for reasons known only to me - - - and/or maybe that other person 'out there' who's on the lookout for some parts too.
As much as I love and enjoy playing the clarinet, I love just as much, if not more, seeing young people enjoying making music too. They need playable horns to do it and that's where I sometimes come in.
I'm content.
Cheers!
ron b
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2000-12-15 10:23
mw: Don't get too sensitive. There is a huge difference between a missing barrel, mouthpiece cap or pivot screw - and a missing key.
Perhpas they were not trying to hide something, but they sure could have been more helpful in thge information they DID provide.
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Author: ron b
Date: 2000-12-15 15:56
May I comment?
Did you write to the seller, Gordon?
I don't think mw was being at all sensitive... merely stating facts.
The seller, in his description, was very up front in my estimation. He was offering this as a PROJECT - broken - missing keys, etc. He has an excellent feedback rating and his e-Mails were straightforward. There may be a few useable keys in the pile. I never have too many extra pivot screws and the body offers a couple of useful tenons, etc., for 'replacements'.
The thing *could* be restored (a fact). That's not out of the question but it's not my intention. The bell goes in the 'extra bells' box. The body goes in the 'cut up for ?' box and the rest of the pieces wait for someone to come along who may need just the one I *may* have in here for 'customer relations' - no charge, have a nice day I won't know a thing about the mouthpiece until I touch it (seller has no way of evaluating it) and the case looks better than most I run across. Maybe it's one of those 'caring' ones - I didn't ask :]
All this for $20.50 - delivereded to my doorstep.
The only better deal I've found so far was the freebie in the dumpster.
Have a nice day
ron b
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-12-15 17:59
I think Ron did fine on this deal, since he recognized this as a collection of parts and he had a need for parts. Of course nobody should have bought this wreck for "real money" or for any reason *except* to salvage the parts, but I agree with Ron that the seller didn't misrepresent it -- I mean, anybody could look at that picture, just as we all did. The fact that nobody outbid Ron speaks for itself: people knew what they were getting into, and very few people wanted to get into it! The right buyer, seems to me, was someone just like Ron, who's doing repair work.
Needle springs are reasonably cheap in bulk (and you can make them yourself, from ordinary sewing needles, if you can get them in non-stainless steel), but take a look at the price of key posts, pivot screws and flat springs in a musical tools catalogue sometime. Between the screws, the posts, the springs and the intact case, Ron probably got *at least* his $20.50 worth right there. Try to buy key cups *at all* -- as far as I know, the only way to get replacement key parts is to salvage them off a parts horn and modify them to fit -- or make them from scratch. He made a bit of a gamble that the hardware wouldn't be too ruined or too oddly sized to recycle, but I think that was a reasonable risk, given that he was getting at least a decent case out of the deal.
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Author: ron b
Date: 2000-12-15 18:52
Hi, Lelia -
I had no idea, when I replied to this 'thread'(?), that it'd go on as long as it has. As you say, the eBay pic and Greg's description said it all... in my estimation anyway. If you were to follow me around, you might be surprised at the number of parts horns I'm out bid on in any given month (LOL). One tech I know has a storage shed full of cadavers. It's so full he doesn't remember what's in it, maybe that lost Denner - who knows? :|
I don't even consider recycling needle springs. Flat springs (and screws) are something else - I can use lots of those. Many models of Vitos use keys interchangeably with little, if any, modification. I haven't made a key *totally* from scratch yet - I did use a salvaged key cup to make an E/B cup for an Albert system once. It's a C pitch horn which I still have - so it was worth the effort. It's something I don't want to do every day though :
( Oh, by the way, I paid $2.00 for the key to salvage the cup - so... That's when I decided to start my own 'parts department' ).
But, anyway... when just one kid keeps playing one horn because of one little interchangeable key or screw or whatever... it makes my day a thousand times over
By the way, Lelia, have you used stainless steel needles for flute springs? That's something I've thought about but haven't tried yet.
ron b
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Author: Bob Curtis
Date: 2000-12-15 21:28
ron b., etc.:
The PERFECT gift for the guy who has EVERYTHING!!!
I Loved It. Merry Christmas, etc.
Bob Curtis
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