Probably one for the French residents of the forum - where would one buy a clarinet from in France? We've heard they're significantly cheaper over there.
The model I'm particularly interested in is a Yamaha YCL-650, which usually retails for approx £1k over here; cheapest I've seen is £925 from Normans. (That's only an 'intermediate' model...)
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Is the French instrument same as British? I know an Oboe is not, Mrs B learned on a French instrument and we had to find an 'export' S50C model from Howarths. Rather more costly than the Yamaha clari!!
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Good question Bromp - I think so, though not sure.
I'm curious what the difference was in your wife's oboe - was it 'just' tuning ie. slightly different length, or something else?
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>> Perhaps here?
Results didn't seem to be French-specific Roger, or did you mean for me to do all the hard work? :)
I'm interested in retail prices at the moment, and if French ebay is anything like UK for clarinets, you won't see many shops selling on there (from what I've seen anyway). Of course might still be some bargains though.
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>> I'm curious what the difference was in your wife's oboe - was it 'just' tuning
>> ie. slightly different length, or something else?
Different fingering systems, English is 'thumbplate' while French is 'conservatoire'. Howarths have completely separate ranges, albeit with corresponding model numbers.
If you look at their website first question is thumbplate or conservatoire - like RHD or LHD!!!
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Sorry, completely outside my fields of experience! But will bring it up in conversation at some point in the future.
Last edited by: sherlock47 on Sat 7 Jun 14 at 12:17
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>> >> I'm curious what the difference was in your wife's oboe
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>> Different fingering systems
Ah ok. Clarinet should be fine though - "the Boehm system is used everywhere in the world except Germany and Austria" (Wiki). I was considering a German clarinet though, so good to know.
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Why not look on amazon.fr
It should give you a good idea of what in on offer.
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>> Why not look on amazon.fr
>> It should give you a good idea of what in on offer.
Excellent idea, although the answer seems to be - nothing!
Well, no Yamahas anyway; a few others, but no obvious competitors. But then the only 650 on Amazon UK is being (mis-)sold for £1830 (£1030 or less everywhere else), so perhaps Amazon isn't the best place to look.
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For some reason, I think you should consider writing a book entitled "Buying a clarinet in France"
You would of course need to spend a summer actually doing the seeking, sourcing and on location purchasing of the instrument in advance of the writing of the book.
If you don't, maybe I will...
;-)
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If you go to Yamaha France then there is a list of dealers. Or go to google.fr and stick in the model number. You get lots of hits. Looks as if it's about 1100 to 1200 euros.
Example at random:
instruments-de-musique.edrmartin.com/?recherche=clarinette
Or is that not what you were looking for?
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Thanks Cranks - you make it sound so simple :)
Looks like you might be able to save a bit. But I don't reckon it would be worth the hassle and possible loss of goodwill from the local music shop, who have kept my 30+ year old current instrument playable.
Runfer - I like the idea, but there's no way I could ever write something like that! You do the writing and I'll let you take 20%.
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Where to buy a clarinet in France - Bromptonaut
