Author: Richmond1958
Date: 2007-12-07 16:35
Welll ... we have a decision (smile). As I mentioned last night, we met with the band director this morning and had my daughter play both instruments (the Yamaha Allegro YCL-550AL) and the Accent CL920W for the band director "blindly." The only constant (as was recommended by this forum) was the mouthpiece, which again was a Vandoren M13, and the ligature which was originally recommended to my daughter.
My wife and I stayed out of the way in the corner so as not to give a reaction one way or the other. The band director agreed that the"second instrument," which happened to be the Yamaha, sounded better. Equally as important, though, she asked my daughter, in a very sincere manner, which one she like liked better, and my daughter said the Yamaha as well, and she seems to be happy now about her choice. By no means do I want to discount the importance of letting her choose as that presumably gives her a sense of commitment to her choice and a sense of control over the situation ... that's really important, and I thank the members of this forum who reminded us of that. By the way, its not that the Accent sounded bad by any means ... its just that for my daughter, at this point in her development ... the Yamaha sounded better.
Sooo, what we are going to do is keep the Yamaha and tell the dealer we want to purchase separately the Vandoren mouthpiece and ligature. I told my daughter that, in the future, if she keeps up her playing and shows interest and commitment that I would be glad to "upgrade" her again to an R13 other model she likes playing, and I would definitely try to cajole the band director into joining us on that expedition to get an "expert" objective ear listening to the choices.
So, here are my "big picture" conclusions that will hopefully help some other poor parent who is trying to do the right thing on "upgrade night" at school.
1. The suggestions that have been made about shopping around a bit at good stores and in getting an expert ear assisting in the process (even if it costs a bit) are very, very good ideas, but they require this "homework" be done before upgrade night. We had to react to the situation after the fact, so we simply, from a practical standpoint, had less degrees of freedom in this regard.
2. Accent is a legitimate brand that appears to source at least some of their clarinets from the same entity that manufactures some Buffet brand clarinets. In that regard, Accent could offer a value proposition, but right now they appear to be priced at the same point or higher than competitive instruments. In order to create a value proposition in the mind of a buyer, in my opinion, the buyer has to understand that Accent is offering a comparable instrument to a big name brand at a lower price. Also, through my untrained ear, the Accent still sounds quite good ... I recall hearing my daughter play the Accent CL920W for the first time earlier in the week after playing a plastic Accent model for 15 months, and it sounded remarkably better ("gee, so that's what a clarinet is supposed to sound like" -- smile). Also, according to our band director, the band is split about equally between Yamaha and Accent instruments, and it is a personal decision.
3. In this market, where its likely a lot of kids will end up at some point losing interest, resale value should at least be a consideration. Brand name will certainly help in that regard.
4. "Upgrade night" -- I will admit to still having some lingering concerns about this event given that the Yamaha unit simply didn't appear to be playing properly and the fact that the Accent brand is not as well known. Or, it could very well have been a coincidence. However, if someone has read this thread, they should be able to react to the situation. Just remeber that decisions need to be made quickly at this point, and you want to be prepared by doing your homework. Also, although we already had good experiences with our dealer from a service standpoint and we were able use the leverage the school's, and the band director's, relationship with the dealer to get even a higher level of service.
I hope other posters might supplement or debate these points more as you are the ones with experience on these issues. One thing I noticed is that, at least in the short time available, I couldn't find a good detailed source of information for how to buy a good "upgrade" clarinet for your child taking into consideration many of the points raised in this message string. There have to be thousands of parent a year considering this issue.
And lastly, I would just like to say one more time that I am profusely grateful for the time and effort all of you have put in your postings trying to help us out ... its helps me to renew my faith in mankind (smile)! And again, next fall when I need to go through all of this again with my son's Cannonball Excalibur alto sax, I may be in touch! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
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