At the risk of boring those who've heard this before, after a 30 year break I started back up on sax and the next year my wife was thinking about starting back up on clarinet. So she pulled out her Selmer Signet and I pulled out a used Buffet R-13 Festival. She said, geesh that was a lot of money, why couldn't she just play the Signet.
We pulled out a tuner and I had her play the full scale of the Signet, marking the notes that were more than 10 cents out. Then we did the same for the Festival. The difference was astonishing. With the great intonation and the buttery-smooth key works the Festival was a slam dunk. That's all it took. The Signet was gifted to another late bloomer (mostly because she'll never play it).
Now five years later, we still see adults in community band with lousy instruments either just CSO (clarinet shaped objects) or grossly out of adjustment and falling apart. It is obvious that these folks are in the band for the friendship and camaraderie, not the music.
The moral of the story is, get the best instrument you can afford. If you can't afford a decent one, then save up. If you think this may just be a passing fancy, remember the resale for a used better instrument is much higher than for a CSO.
We pulled out a tuner and I had her play the full scale of the Signet, marking the notes that were more than 10 cents out. Then we did the same for the Festival. The difference was astonishing. With the great intonation and the buttery-smooth key works the Festival was a slam dunk. That's all it took. The Signet was gifted to another late bloomer (mostly because she'll never play it).
Now five years later, we still see adults in community band with lousy instruments either just CSO (clarinet shaped objects) or grossly out of adjustment and falling apart. It is obvious that these folks are in the band for the friendship and camaraderie, not the music.
The moral of the story is, get the best instrument you can afford. If you can't afford a decent one, then save up. If you think this may just be a passing fancy, remember the resale for a used better instrument is much higher than for a CSO.