My wife and I went garage saling today. We stopped at this place advertised as a "Barn Sale." It was one of the most incredibly disgusting places I've been to. All kinds of stuff, clothing, plush animals, electrical appliances, tractors and so on left to rot in the rather large yard. They had a huge pole barn.... huge to the extent that I counted at least 6 ancient vehicles parked in various spots out of the way... you almost didn't notice them. This area was even more cluttered than the yard. My poor wife has a lot of allergies and sensitivities and did not do well at all there. They asked if I was looking for anything special and to make the story short(er) they presented me with a clarinet for $10. At first I was pretty pleased as it appeared to be a wooden Yamaha clarinet, with the wood in nice shape... no cracks etc.
Well, the bell and bottom section are Yamaha parts, the upper section and barrel are plastic Bundy parts.... but for only $10 I had to pick it up.
Here's my dilemma. Is this the bottom section to a YCL-34? OR>... a higher level Yamaha? To my knowledge Yamaha only marks the model number on the upper section. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Full Version: How To Identify Yamaha Clarinet Model
QUOTE(azuka @ Jul 31 2005, 04:04 AM)
My wife and I went garage saling today. We stopped at this place advertised as a "Barn Sale." It was one of the most incredibly disgusting places I've been to. All kinds of stuff, clothing, plush animals, electrical appliances, tractors and so on left to rot in the rather large yard. They had a huge pole barn.... huge to the extent that I counted at least 6 ancient vehicles parked in various spots out of the way... you almost didn't notice them. This area was even more cluttered than the yard. My poor wife has a lot of allergies and sensitivities and did not do well at all there. They asked if I was looking for anything special and to make the story short(er) they presented me with a clarinet for $10. At first I was pretty pleased as it appeared to be a wooden Yamaha clarinet, with the wood in nice shape... no cracks etc.Â
Well, the bell and bottom section are Yamaha parts, the upper section and barrel are plastic Bundy parts.... but for only $10 I had to pick it up.
Here's my dilemma. Is this the bottom section to a YCL-34? OR>... a higher level Yamaha? To my knowledge Yamaha only marks the model number on the upper section. Any thoughts? Thanks.]
Well, the bell and bottom section are Yamaha parts, the upper section and barrel are plastic Bundy parts.... but for only $10 I had to pick it up.
Here's my dilemma. Is this the bottom section to a YCL-34? OR>... a higher level Yamaha? To my knowledge Yamaha only marks the model number on the upper section. Any thoughts? Thanks.]
It is likely that being wooden it is going to be a YCL34, instruments of a higher level than that would tend to be looked after presteenly as they cost over a grand. The 34 is an older model, more in comparison with most student models now. Bundy is a reasonable make of clarinet but you may have the following problems with it:
clarinets are designed individually, so that the tone holes precisly relate to proper tuning (acoustic of instrument is a very complex subject so I'll try and keep it simple) Basically if you put a hole further up the tube it is sharper (higher in pitch) is you put it further down the tube it is lower in pitch. This is also relative to the bore of the instrument. As you have a mungrel instrmuent it is unliekly that the bores and tone holes will match to give a pitch perfect sound, but nevertheless, $10 is a pretty good buy even if it is just a pretty ornament. It may be worth taking it to a music shop to see if they can test it on a tuning machine and see if any improvements can be made.
Don't the Yamaha's Clarinet had the name printed on it?
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.