My son has been trying to teach himself how to play the clarinet. In order to do this at a reasonable price, he bought two off of Ebay, but both have proven defective - some notes just won’t play right on them. (It’s not him, he had the instrument checked out by someone at Sam Ash Music Store when the problems arose.)
Does anyone have a decent brand to recommend, that he can get (or we can get him) for not too much? We’ve seen some in the $90-110 range new, but we have no idea if these are any good. Since he’s just getting into it (and his level of commitment is questionable - he tends to get obsessed with certain pursuits for a year or two and then forget about them), I don’t want (us or him) to spend too much, but certainly an instrument that will at least play all of the expected notes is a must.
Yamaha has some beginners clarinets that aren’t too bad but are reasonably expensive; I’m in Asia so not sure about the prices in dollars.
One important thing regarding the price - get a plastic clarinet, not a wooden one. Wooden clarinets are for advanced players and will be MUCH more expensive; look for Conductor or Legacy clarinets (most in the 80-150 dollar range on amazon) which I believe specialize in student models.
Go to a music store that has rental instruments available - they should have a selection of pre-owned and reasonably priced and fully serviced horns available. A good quality plastic-bodied clarinet is a basic starter for a new student.
Potential makes/models to try would be:
Vito/LeBlanc 7212 or 7214
Yamaha 20 (a popular student model)
Selmer CL-301 or CL-311
They should also have suggestions for other mouthpieces and reeds that may work better for your son. Also getting at least a few lessons would be very helpful to curb potential bad playing habits.