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Cracked Plastic Bass Clarinet

Author: WoodsyBloom
Date: 2022-07-26 01:29

My friend was playing his bass clarinet next to me at marching band camp today. He complained about his C#/G# sounding funny and a minute later he discovered a massive crack in the area that quickly expanded and rendered the instrument unplayable. The crack was at the lower part of the upper joint and ran parallel to the ring where the joints meet. I've only seen cracks running up and down an instrument before and only in wooden instruments. The school has us playing Yamaha YCL-221 low Eb's for marching band specifically because they're not supposed to crack. My band directors are convinced the crack is his fault and that he dropped or didn't take care of it properly. I, however, witnessed the event and and know this is not the case. I'm hoping for a reason that this can happen to present to my directors so they don't charge him $3,000 to replace the instrument.

Information about the bass clarinet:
The school has had it for about six years.
It's played heavily August through December and hardly at all the rest of the year.
We live in Texas. It's hot.
It's also gotten to experience 30/40 degree weather.
We do choreo in our marching shows that require putting it down on pavement very quickly and roughly.

So how does this kind of thing happen to a plastic instrument?

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