Author: paul
Date: 1999-07-20 22:19
Nope. Well, let's qualify the answer to a "definite maybe" instead of a clear-cut "no".
There have been raging arguements (okay, politically correctly put "extensive discussions") about the materials for a clarinet. Generally speaking (there are some exceptions, so let's be careful), you will find totally ABS, or polyresin, or some other name for the type of plastic used in clarinets that has gotten a lot of bad press. Typically (there I go again by lumping everything together in one pile, shame on me!) the plastic horns are student grade. The workmanship isn't all that great, but the price is right and they sure are rugged. I used a plastic horn in marching band decades ago. It took a beating and played like it too. I can still remember tripping in the middle of an intersection, spilling the horn out into the street, right in front of passing cars. I quickly collected all of the pieces before a car ran over them and stuffed them into the case as fast as I could. To my shock, the horn still played the next hour in band class. It played just as bad as it did the day before, but at least it played. Now, that's a good definition of rugged. Cheap, tough, and it sounded and played that way. There are wood student grade horns that are just as bad as the plastic student grade horns, so one must be careful in telling the difference in the material versus the workmanship. Personally, I'd vote for the workmanship over the material. Typically (watch the caveat, of course) the good intermediate and pro grade clarinets are made out of wood. However, that's slowly changing. If the workmanship is done to world class performance standards, you can get what initially looks like a beater of a plastic horn to play very well in Carnegie Hall. You see, it's all in the workmanship that's put into the horn, and not necessarily in the wood/plastic base material of the horn. I've heard of undercut plastic horns that have been reconditioned by some great world class techs. The results were outstanding. So was the price. I've heard cheap wooden student grade horns that tortured my ears.
Now, there is a relatively new wood/plastic mix in the Greenline horns that is supposed to be the best of both worlds. The manufacturing workmanship on the horn is first-rate. The quality and durability of the horn is apparently top notch on both fronts. You could play the same horn in an outdoor marching band environment, then wipe it down and clean it up for a professional symphony performance right after that with no problems at all. However, be prepared to pay pro grade prices for these horns, because the workmanship was invested in them to make them that good.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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