 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2005-10-30 11:50
My wife & I went yesterday to the auction of Carty's Music in Ypsilianti, MIchigan. The largest band and orchestra dealer in the area is now out of business after 67 years.
There was a step-up Yamaha alto sax that went for $450 to a reed player from Brigton, who also got an older but really nice Yamaha clarinet for $425. No particulary good tenor saxes. Gobs of cornets, that nobody wanted. Entry level clarinets went for $75. A good student double french horn went for $825. They started at $1000 for a Leblanc Concerto clarinet, but there were no bidders, even after dropping to $600. They were going to go back to instruments that didn't sell, but we had to leave.
We got a couple of Yamaha student level flutes for $60 each. I was outbid on a Yamaha wood body piccolo by the band director at Ypsilanti High, who still got a great deal ($225) and really needed it (they are playing Holst 2nd suite, their picc player quit and the other player doesn't own one.) Then I was outbid on a new plastic body picc, that went for only $40 more than the used ones.
All in all though, this was a pretty sad affair. The auctioneer didn't sell a fair amount of stuff because it would fetch more on eBay.
A friend commented "If you can't make money selling instruments in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, where can you?" The music store business, though, is a lot like the hardware store business. One of my favorite hardware stores saw their competition being decimated by Home Depot and Lowes. So they dumped mower repair, dumped screen repair, dumped housewares, and moved to a much, much smaller building. Now, they are the only hardware store in central Ann Arbor, and do a brisk business selling nuts and bolts, plumbing parts, and electrical supplies. What this says is, that they took a hard look at their market, figured out what they really needed, and cut everything else loose. There were certainly other factors involved with Carty's, but I wonder if this is what other people are seeing in their communities.
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2005-10-30 11:59
Hi Ralph,
Yes, it is very sad when we see the andother "old music store" for the 1950s era that we loved so much close. There was an auction at a local TOL music store several years ago and it was the same story. I did pick up a NOS Selmer 10S FB and a really nice Series 9. A K series Master Model was had for a song; I sold them on eBay.
Thanks for sharing this sad event. A music store where I used to carry a whole Saturday's worth of students now concentrates on instrument repair in the same space and has a staff of 6 or more working full-time. They are always busy.
HRL
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-10-30 13:58
Spent some happy hours in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor back in 1947 and playing under Revelli. How 'bout that Raisin River too!
Bob Draznik
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Author: NiceOldHorns
Date: 2005-10-30 14:09
I wonder if this store, like my neighborhood supplier, has demand for only guitars and drumkits?
That, and charging MAP retail will drive most of us to the internet sellers...
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2005-10-30 16:10
Carty's was full service: guitars, woodwinds, stings, sound equipment, all repairs, sheet music, reeds, cases, you name it you could get it.
In the mid 1970's, they had a great sale when they moved from downtown Ypsi to their current location. I had a great time and picked up a stack of old sheet music.
For any 2nd generation family business, without a clearcut succession plan, closing is certainly a strong possibility.
There used to be lots musical supply stores here. Carty's, Paul's Music, Arbor Music, Nally's Music (guitars), Al Nally Music (pianos and band instrument), King's Keyboard House, Hadcock Music House (sheet music only), R.I.T. Drums, Oz's Music and Herb David Guitar Studio. I bet I missed some. Carty's, Paul's, Herb's and Arbor all had in-house band instrument repairs. Herb's, Oz's and King's are the only ones left. There is also Music-Go-Round, and they sell only used instruments.
Eric Satterlee of Meridian Winds in the Lansing area (about an hour away by car) has started pickup/dropoff service of repairs on Thursdays at the U-M School of Music and Huron High School.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2005-10-30 16:16
Our community, with about 10,000 folks within shopping distance, has three "music stores." One has pawnship quality guitars, one has a decent looking rack of guitars; the third has a small inventory of music folders, music stands. the latter two have a few reeds.
I try to support these shops, but find it difficult because they can't afford to inventory (for example) a range of Mitchell-Lurie and Gonzales reeds. Their techs are part timers, one of whom teaches guitar. Forget buying a wind or bowed instrument.
I'm sure that folks drive th 60-miles to Spokane for "serious" instrument shopping. Where they'll find that the biggest store can provide the local Jr and Sr high school band books, but will order Baermann and Rose with 2-week delivery.
I lived diametrically across Detroit from Ypsi (Oxford) and wondered if there was artisitc life down there.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2005-11-01 02:24
Bob Phillips,
Yes there is plenty of music here. Besides the Ann Arbor Symphony (a very good "driving for dollars" orchestra, there is the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, and Washtenaw Community College. There are civic bands in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Dexter. There are civic theater groups in Ann Arbor, Dexter and Saline. The Ann Arbor Council for Traditional Music and Dance has dancing to live music in the old Pittsfield Grange building at least a couple of times each week. The Saline Community Big Band has been playing monthly gigs since I can remember (35 years). The (U-M) University Musical Society hosts world-class events (Sabine Meyer is touring here this year.) All of the public school systems in the area have very active music programs. There are a number of bars with live music, such as the Firefly, a jazz club. Kerrytown Concert House, a private venue, has a number of public and private events each week, chamber music, jazz, avante garde, you name it. For less well-travelled genres, I play in several Klezmer bands, typically doing a couple of gigs a month, not bad in a community of 100,000 people, though a lot of these are in metro Detroit, and sometimes Lansing, rarely Toledo, OH. When everyone is in town, a Balkan band I am in can play an international folkdancing event every month and expect to draw 30-40 people.
I hope this presents the spectrum of activites here.
Regards
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-11-01 04:26
We had much the same problem up in Saint Louis with beloved Hunleth Music. Located in downtown on Broadway, Hunleth was the "old style" store personified. Floor to eye level wooden drawer cabinets, with glass display cases overhead. A full line of horns on display (all clarinets, all saxes, all horns, plus a room fulla drum stuff in the back.
It was the kind of place that you could purchase a Chedeville staple mouthpiece for an oboe (complete with reeds and a nifty wooden box with a sliding type lid), reeds for a bass sax (in multiple strengths), or any one of all of the available "red and white" mutes for trumpet, cornet, French horn, trombones AND tuba.
The place was not very big on music lessons, had only a middling sheet music department, and was not the place to buy a piano. It always seemed to be overstaffed, with lots of old guys named Norm and Fred who knew where everything was hidden. You could buy a Albert system clarinet by picking and matching joints from fifty or sixty of the things, all stacked in a pile in a slot in the cabinets, like so much cord wood, and then buy the result for fifteen bucks. (It might have had different serial numbers on the joints, but it was still a Buffet.)
I blundered into the place when I was in high school (me, the young punk, driving the family car in downtown during a workday! The nerve!), and for about fifteen years relied on the place for many of my music needs. Then, I skip going there for a few years and the place up and closes. Norm and Fred and the rest of them are probably dead now, and it's hell to purchase bass sax reeds these days, believe you me.
Two years ago, I bought a decent Albert horn on the eBay website, a playable horn for about $60.00. Imagine the sensation that I experienced when I opened the package and saw a Hunleth Music label affixed to the box style case in which the horn came in. It was like I was back there looking up at the stack o' clarinets, picking and choosing all over again...
I ran into a similar store in downtown Pensacola FL a few years back, but they had drawn down their inventory quite a bit and made most of their nut doing repair work. Still had the display cases, though, plus all of the tubas that they were working on lined up in the front display window of the store.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: A2Clarinetist
Date: 2005-11-01 12:31
There is also the Dexter Community Orchestra, the U of M Life Sciences Orchestra, the Belleville Community Band and several smaller groups that play at churches and private events.
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti is definitely a musical area.
I am sad that Carty's closed, however, they just weren't the same in the past few years.
Eric Satterlee is a great instrument technician and can get most musical instruments and accesories.
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2005-11-01 13:29
Terry,
Thanks for the story. It is wonderful to go into places like that. Carty's was like that until they moved into their current building 25 years ago. We used to have a hardware store like that - fascinating to visit. They had everything. Unfortunately people didn't need most of what they stocked anymore. Gone now. Our versions of Norm & Fred hang out at Washtenaw Dairy at 6AM - great place to go for an early cuppa.
Andrea,
Yeah - I forgot those, and probably plenty more. No offense.
Regards,
Ralph
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Author: A2Clarinetist
Date: 2005-11-01 13:53
Ralph,
I wasn't upset.  No need to apologize...I'm just pointing out that there are so many groups...
I think I am going to Meridian Winds soon Ralph...did you get that group set up yet?
Andrea
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2005-11-01 16:21
Mark,
I know about them - talked to them maybe a year ago about a stolen rare score (which we ended up paying a relatively small ransom to get back.) But I have never been there - now I will have to make time for that.
Andrea,
Nope. But I should. I just put it on my to-do list.
Ralph
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