Is Baldwin Gibson music education clarinet a good clarinet?

Answer 1

Well that depends......would it be my first choice, no. Would it be dead last, no. You might have problems finding parts. One of the biggest issues with instruments like this are the fact that the parts do not last or hold up well and when they break or become damaged you cannot fix, you must buy an entirely new instrument.

I would relate it to a car. Wouldn't you want to buy a car where parts are easy to obtain and if something breaks (which ALMOST always happens) you can obtain parts at a reasonable price?

At this same price level you can find a quality Used instrument that would serve you better. May not be as "shiny" but will last the test of time.

i have one and its good for starting but the valves eventualy get slow and sludgy so you have to clean the whole thing

A much better choice is to just purchase the "skittle Trumpet". It's much better than the Gibson Baldwin and has much better performance. A great trumpet player named David Smith uses it, and he's one of the best performers I've ever heard.

Answer 2

They are not terrible (like many of the inexpensive instruments) but I am not very happy with them. I have had several students show up with these in beginning band. I have had to do on average more adjustments to these instruments than any other. The biggest problem is these students will move on to my upper bands and still use these inferior instruments.

Answer 3

I believe that they are not actually made by Gibson Baldwin, but are a cheap knock-off. I just saw one in my music store, and it's a typical cheap, poorly built Clarinet. Ill-fitting key work, cheap foam pads, and a very poor case. I wouldn't recommend them as they are probably hard to get parts for like other cheap instruments, rendering them useless when 1 minor part breaks. And, even though they look like wood, they are actually burnished plastic to look like wood.

Edit:

No, they are not good clarinets. My parents bought me one when I first started band and didn't know anything about instruments, but now I know what a poor decision on their part was. Some of the side keys are positioned weird and mine tends to go sharp on the upper octave while the lower octave is flat (if mine does it, it's likely that any others will as well). It also does not play well for more advanced students, as it does not jump easy from octave to octave (if at all).