 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Brian Peterson
Date: 2021-07-15 20:34
Why does Buffet even bother? Same for those pieces of crap ligatures they include. Seems like you could cut a lot of costs If you just discontinued them
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2021-07-15 21:13
They're saving more money supplying basic moulded plastic mouthpieces and cheap ligatures and caps to complete the outfit than if they were to supply pro level ebonite mouthpieces that no-one's likely to use.
Selmer supply C85 or similar ebonite mouthpieces with their clarinets and I'm pretty certain hardly anyone uses them in favour of their own mouthpiece, unless the supplied C85 happens to be better than what they've been using (in the instance they upgraded from using the stock plastic mouthpiece supplied with their previous student model clarinet), as do Yamaha with their Custom series clarinets and a basic plastic 4C mouthpiece with their student models (same with their saxes).
For a beginner level clarinet, having a basic but reasonable mouthpiece, ligature and cap supplied with the outfit happens to be an important factor than supplying clarinets without mouthpieces for some odd reason I'm not too clued up on - maybe to allow the beginner to be able to play the instrument from the word go. But that's just a wild guess and I could be very wrong.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Brian Peterson
Date: 2021-07-15 22:00
First thing I tell my students when they get new Buffet “throw away the mouthpiece”. Next thing is have your parents “order a Fobes Debut and a vinyl Rover inverted ligature”. Not even $75 with shippping. They could just drop the pretense, save costs and drop the price.
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Author: Matt74
Date: 2021-07-15 22:01
People seem to think that something is "missing" if there is no mouthpiece. Buyers don't care if it's any good, they just want it in there. It's not rational, but that's the way people are. It also encourages sales to new players.
Those mouthpieces and ligatures cost at most a few dollars to produce and sell. That's nothing compared to the profit they are making.
Like a lot of things, most instrument purchases are based primarily on perception. Some things are vastly overvalued (like a cheap mouthpiece), and others are very undervalued (like not having leaks). You can see the mouthpiece in the case.
- Matthew Simington
Post Edited (2021-07-15 22:06)
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Author: Brian Peterson
Date: 2021-07-15 22:46
I guess I should tell them instead to slam the mouthpiece against the floor and see what happens as a reminder to them about being very careful with whatever decent mouthpiece they have. I suppose it happens that a parent or adult just walks into a store to buy one but that certainly has not been my case in over 40 years of playing. When you’re going to make that kind of an investment it only underscores the importance of working with a good teacher or a band instructor who is in formed about the clarinet even if they can’t play it. But these days I guess that’s too much to expect
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Author: kdk
Date: 2021-07-16 00:07
Brian Peterson wrote:
> I guess I should tell them instead to slam the mouthpiece
> against the floor and see what happens as a reminder to them
> about being very careful with whatever decent mouthpiece they
> have.
Or collect them for you or someone else to use as cadavers on which to practice refacing skills.
Karl
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Author: Ed
Date: 2021-07-16 00:16
Perhaps they should make a deal with Vandoren and include a coupon in every case for a significant discount on a new mouthpiece.
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Author: Matt74
Date: 2021-07-16 02:23
>When you’re going to make that kind of an investment it only underscores the importance >of working with a good teacher or a band instructor who is in formed about the clarinet >even if they can’t play it.
I think that's part of the problem. The people who are buying are mostly dependent upon others. In the best case they get good advice that is generalized - "Get a Buffet/Yamaha." "Get a B45". In the worst case they get bad advice - "Get a wooden one." It comes from humility and prudence (because they rightly seek advice), but in the end they can't always make the best decisions in the particular. Manufacturers don't make it easy either. It's inevitable.
Examples:
One clarinet has a mouthpiece, and one doesn't, they're both on the "approved" list. What's the better deal?
$150-200 for a "plastic" mouthpiece???
- Matthew Simington
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Author: Brian Peterson
Date: 2021-07-16 05:04
I had a couple of parents over the years of my teaching who just decided to up and buy a new R13 without consulting me at all, mostly at the urgings of one band director in particular who had no Business doing so. They had more money than Fort Knox so practically speaking it wasn’t any more than they would drop at a moments notice travel to Aruba or some for off destination.
Not all of them were less fortunate at least financially speaking and the guy actually told one kid who had a pretty decent E 11 that shouldn’t take from me anymore because I wasn’t insisting that his parents go out and drop 3500 or $4000 at the time for an R 13. To his credit the student basically told the band director to go put it where the sun doesn’t shine. Far more brave than I would’ve been as a high school senior.
A rah rah marching band guy, the director that is, lasted another year. Before he realized he wasn’t on the fast track to being the senior band director is there. I don’t even think he still in music at all. But by then I was gone. Still got to teach that young man until he graduated as a senior. I’d go to his home with his parents there and really enjoyed my time with them. And he also would regularly kick the asses Of kids whose parents had gone out and dropped that kind of money sight unseen. I did talk his parents into buy A Cicero Casper 13 Style mouthpiece from Greg Smith though and His sound got even better.
Post Edited (2021-07-16 05:10)
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Author: johnwesley
Date: 2021-07-16 06:02
The only MPC I liked by Buffet was a grenadilla wooden job that came with an old Buffet albert system. In perfect condition and played like a dream. Still have it, but mostly use my Pomarico crystals.
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