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Re: Think your ligature matters?

Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2014-04-26 21:03

I strive for fairness and objectivity.

Accordingly it seems only fair that I advise readers of the following:

I received, and was given full written permission by a Director at Silverstein Works to pass on to you his email response to me, to the dialogue on the bboard about the aforementioned ligature. Given that his response was long (but not long-winded: it was all on point and didn’t veer off into tangents) and that my direct publication of it would not only occupy large amounts of bboard space, but require prior moderator approval as well, I will summarize.

I will not be perfect, much that I will strive to come as close as I can. And I acknowledge that bias may enter into the topics I choose to highlight from that email, how I summarize them, and my own notions on ligatures.

Silverstein recognized their right to use the bboard directly but chose to stick to email response. I would ask you to consider that on the one hand, my issues weren’t ignored and that many other companies act in similar fashion with regards to the bboard, but that on the other hand some companies do actively participate in discussions here and deserve credit for doing so.

• Silverstein was very professional in their response, and offered me opportunity to try the ligature for free. Although in my opinion not clearly apparent from their website, Silverstein elaborated in the email that their application to try one of their ligatures was more about screening out non-serious players both for their potential inability to discern their product’s differences, and inability/unwillingness to purchase said product even such preferential differences were identified. In my opinion I think this is fair. Fairness also mandates that I openly admit to having turned down their offer, on grounds of morality, because I don’t see myself buying the product based upon my own personal perceptions as to the level of my clarinet play, and perceived value of using the money on other things. “Your mileage might vary” here.

• Silverstein was the first to admit that a ligature’s value was in its play and sound. It explained how its use of the same cord as NASA ties into (pun not intended) its lifetime guarantee and precision of the cord with respect to its resistance to stretch and its durability. It also cited how few players who’ve purchased the product have returned it, how they work closely with all their customers, and how those who did return it were refunded without issue.

• Silverstein recognized that they are a high priced competitor in the market space. They cited the product’s value, research costs to develop it, and hand creation of each ligature as part of the explanation behind that cost.

• Silverstein claims no known affiliation with the poster in this thread above, no paid endorsers, and that their research came gratis, from artists who’ve used their product. Access to such results was available on request, as was basic contact information of the tester, and that greater accessibility to such results by consumers on Silverstein's part might be indicated.

• Silverstein claims a wet reed has been shown in in-house testing to remain wetter long, when its presoaked ligature is used to adhere it to the mouthpiece.

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Think your ligature matters?

sdr

2014-04-23 05:31