 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2021-05-07 04:52
I have a friend who is a dealer for Packer. He is very impressed with the quality, but is mainly a brass person. His wife is a double reed person but they have not yet tried the Packer double reeds. They have said they expect equal quality out of the double reeds as they see in the brass.
I am considering an English horn, and am looking for opinions of those who have *actually* played a Packer (please, no "it's Chinese and automatically awful" comments. The Chinese are producing some very good quality brass instruments now. Not top level pro, but very good quality. No, it's not going to be a Loree but I'm not going to need it to be.)
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2021-05-07 09:54
It's impossible to say unless one has actually played on an instrument. I have played a K.Ge instrument that I was very impressed with, but then I played an instrument that a student bought that was fully a half step low in pitch and unusable. I have no experience with the Packer brand.
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: davidjsc
Date: 2021-05-10 09:48
I have a Packer C clarinet, bought it back in December 2020, and for its cost I'm quite happy with it for a student-level instrument. To be honest, buying it blind and untried, I was actually surprised how much I liked it when I got it in my hands and it works fine for my needs. It's certainly not a Mercedes Benz but it is also not a Skoda. I think I may have been the store's 5th or 6th purchaser of their C clarinet, apparently someone bought 4 of them all at once.
My main complaint with it is the mouthpiece was crap so subbed in a Yamaha 4C. I also had to sand down the tenon cork as it was really really tight to assemble/disassemble. When I took a tuner to it, it was actually pretty well tuned (my dealer had also done a once-over with it when it arrived) although starts to go tad flat on the three lowest notes and one of the alternate fingerings can be off if I'm using too soft or worn a reed.
Now... that said, but the dealer/store from where I bought it said they had demo'ed one of their bassoons and they said it was terrible ("unplayable") and sent it back. From talking to them, Packer does at least stand behind their instruments and accept criticism where due and works with dealers to refine their products.
I can play oboe and clarinet and while I am happy with my clarinet, would I buy a double reed from Packer? - probably not, not unless I got to demo it first. (yes, their English horn has caught my eye too). But would I buy another one of their clarinets, probably yes if they make an affordable Eb or A. My music dealer said they were curious how the Eb sounded, as there is really no student model available on the market.
Anyways I hope this helps.
DSC
~~ Alto Clarinet; Bass Clarinet; B-flat and C Boehm Clarinets; Albert C Clarinet; Oboe ~~
Post Edited (2021-05-10 09:50)
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2021-05-14 23:41
Thanks, and that's interesting because my friend the brass player / dealer said he assumed the bassoons would be as good as the brass. Seems not. I had a nice C series Loree that I had to sell due to illness about ten years ago, and it sure would be nice to track one of those down again.
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Author: davidjsc
Date: 2021-05-27 23:07
Yeah, my dealer for my Packer clarinet seemed genuinely surprised and disappointed with their demo bassoon, because other instruments (clarinets and I think saxophones) they had been bringing in for demo trials and sale, were getting generally decent response and feedback from their buyers. They said they were really hoping for something better in the instance of the bassoon, because Packer seems to be setting itself up nicely to corner the market for affordable student instrument option for the generally much more monetarily inaccessible instruments for student and casual amateur players like bassoons, english, horns, speciality clarinets, ie. A, C, E-flat models, soprano sax, etc. – with Thomann in Germany probably their only competition in that niche market.
DSC
~~ Alto Clarinet; Bass Clarinet; B-flat and C Boehm Clarinets; Albert C Clarinet; Oboe ~~
Post Edited (2021-05-27 23:09)
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