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Re: Lowdown on lownotes

Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-09-26 11:32

>>Placed in the hands of a kid with no experience or knowledge that the horn isn't performing as it should, I can certainly see why frustration level causes many kids to lose interest in their instruments. They think they aren't good musicians, when in fact it is the equipment's fault.>>

So right. The first alto clarinet I played, in junior high school, came on loan from another school because my new school's large instruments hadn't arrived yet. That poor old neglected honker! The band teacher knew how to adjust it, and did improve it enough to make it playable, sort of, but there were limits to what he could do with such a wreck. I hated alto clarinet until I had a chance to play one that was in good condition.

A theory about that rental: It sounds like a marriage. Someone took two damaged instruments, scrapped the ruined parts and made up a clarinet from the usable parts. That would account for the lack of any manufacturer's logo, because the usable bits happened to be sections without logos. That could mean they're from different brands of instruments, or at least from different decades, because typically the manufacturer keeps on stamping the logos in the same places over the years. Take a close look at the keywork and the tenon bands and see if the contours and the other details all match. I bet they don't.

If the bass is a marriage, most likely it needs a divorce. It'll never play in tune because the various manufacturers adjust their intonation compromises differently (ratio of length of neck to length of sections is slightly different, with corresponding slight differences in hole placement, etc.). With clarinets, opposites do not attract!

Good luck getting a whole bass soon. Look at it this way: You'll appreciate the good one all the more by comparison with the junker.

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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