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Re: My new chinese Efer

Author: Kalashnikirby
Date: 2017-12-31 03:44

awildman,
is that so? CNCing a key and then moutning it by hand should be legal in China too, but I'm no expert.

Anyways, your statement is a broad and untrue generalization.
Firstly, I've already hinted that actual manufacturing quality is not an issue with this instrument. With the "ressources" available, it might be even considered excellent: The keys don't wobble, there is surprisingly little play, it seals better than many Buffets and upon closer inspection, all needle springs are made out of blued steel and exactly cut to their appropriate lenghts (unlike what I've observed on Instruments of czech make...)
What I'd be interested in would be a chinese instrument maker willing to go the extra mile and refine this concept. I know that Ridenour offers a bass clarinet that is very well received, but has bendy keys - no doubt, while this may be unproblematic on an efer, casted key are a terrible idea in the long run on a bass clarinet.

What does this have to do with quality? With the right tools, any monkey could forge and solder keys together with the right tools. All the big makers have special gauges where you place the individual parts and then solder them. There is no difficulty in that. On the contrary, I can really respect whoever was able to put my efer together, knowing they don't have the same means like bigger manufacturers.
There are other aspects that a trained workforce cannot replace. Experienced technicians from Germany all have in common that their instruments are not only designed, but also made by them. You could just have someone with a solid concept designing instruments and have them Made in china. Oh wait, Ridenour did that. True master grade instruments however will still have to be made by educated and experienced professionals, or at least be checked by them.

Now imagine someone coming from there and actually changing the production process, introducing new manufacturing techniques and maybe better QC. What I'm specifically talking about is keys made of cold rolled, rather than casted cupronickel and more precisely machined + undercut toneholes, so nothing too fancy. They could charge 3-4 times of what I pay now for their product and I'd still buy it. Sooner or later, this is going to happen, like it has already with other instruments.
On a site note, I'm worried by the more and more cheap grenadilla clarinets flooding the market. There is literally no reason for me to believe in the material being relevant on a sub 1000$ instrument. In fact, I'm stll hoping for the manufacturer Schreiber here in Germany to go bankrupt. None of their instruments I've tested so far was anyhwere near likable and felling a tree that takes 80-100 to mature for muscial instrument building seems like a waste if the result doesn't turn out to be at least on Buffet E13 or R13/RC level.

On the other hand, Uebel have their German system clarinets made in China and they're clearly better than what Schreiber or Yamaha have to offer in the sub 2€ category.
You're right, it's not that easy.

Post Edited (2017-12-31 03:50)

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