Author: clarnibass
Date: 2023-06-12 08:23
>> I believe that the Royal Global , Kessler and Ridenour are US companies and designed in the US ,and these companies defend their reputations by maintaining levels of quality control on what leaves the China factories plus their after work . This means that what issues,( if any) that remain when they arrive at the consumer aren't sever, and if they are you have recourse through the company. <<
From what I could find, Royal Global is apparently owned by a Chinese clarinetist, which makes sense as they would probably know how to deal with Chinese factories much better. They are listed in the USA but seems that they are basically a Chinese company.
Western importers sometimes have input, request, add design features, etc. The factories would basically do whatever you are willing to pay for. To say they design the instrument is a long stretch, almost all of them are sort of copies of Yamaha/Selmer/Buffet anyway.
As far as non-severe issues because of reputable importers, without mentioning anyone specific I recently had a saxophone branded by one of the companies mentioned in this thread. It had appalling build quality, and probably the absolute worst leaking neck tenon joint I've seen on any saxophone, including very old and worn ones and the cheapest most terrible new ones. The mag needle didn't even move from fully open.
In general "forum reputation" is more often than I'd like to think is different from "real world" and "professional repair group" reputation... unfortunately. Not to say any of the above aren't very good, just in general why I'm skeptical.
>> Royal is the only brand of Chinese bass clarinet that is not just a stencil with their name slapped on it <<
Maybe being essentially entirely Chinese and being more knowledgeable with the intricacies that come with that, while also supposedly being quality oriented, makes a lot of difference in that sense.
Something interesting is that the Max is basically a Greenline-like material, but basically the same as the Polaris, yet it is much less... but not so much less like plastic student models are in relation to good wood models.
Hard to imagine the difference is from the material alone.
I'm wondering if there's a significant build quality difference. For example I've seen your photos of the Max and it had rough filings on the key hinges for clearance, which is very common on very cheap instruments. Curious if the Polaris has stuff like that too, which could absolutely account for the difference, even if acoustic design is identical.
>> That was me with the $500 bass clarinet. <<
I don't know about the $500 Chinese bass. Can't find it anymore, or any other for that price. ebay Chinese bass clarinets are mostly in the $1500 range. I'm curious because a friend is considering one. The only local importer is out of stock for the foreseeable future (I guess the local equivalent to Thomann, Kessler, Ridenour). He would bring me the bass to go over but there is only so much they would want to spend on it. With shipping and tax it's still much less than the local one, close to half.
One bass clarinet player here bought one and they happy with it (playable out of the box, decent tone and intonation).
It's possible the ones sold to importers go through an extra step of someone going over them (at the factory)... or not.
Post Edited (2023-06-12 08:25)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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