New member here, just started playing clarinet 4 weeks ago - but am making very good progress with the help of a top-notch teacher.
My clarinet is a Reso-Tone, Model 7212, Serial Number C.48611 - bought on Ebay (UK) for £69. Assuming I've read the serial numbers list on Danny Chestnut's website correctly, it was made at Kenosha in 1979 - making it a heck of a lot older than I thought!
Unfortunately, I can't work out how to add a picture of the logo, but it's 'Vito' inside an oval, with Reso-Tone, below it, USA below that, and a 3 inside a circle at the bottom (all markings engraved, not painted).
I certainly wouldn't have guessed that age from its condition, as the only problems I've found were a slightly sticking key, some of the buffer pads have slipped slightly out of position (though still working), and the corks are getting to the end of their useful life (though still making a good seal). The sticking key was sorted with a tiny drop of oil on the relevant hinge - I used valve oil from my baritone horn, and it worked a treat. The pads all appear to be in very good condition - though, in fairness, I've only got as far as playing the notes from C below the stave to A on the second space, so there are a shedload of keys which I haven't used as yet.
I have mixed feelings about playing music; since I started playing baritone horn in 2015, I've had a heck of a lot of enjoyment and made lots of new friends, and found 'fresh fields to conquer' in the shape of a five string banjo (played two-finger, thumb-lead) - and now the clarinet, and loving the deep, rich sound it makes. But, at the same time, sad that some unhappy experiences with piano and guitar in my teens convinced me that "I would never be a musician". Even when, forty years ago, I became good friends with a brother and sister who played in a top notch brass band, I never expressed the slightest interest in having a go - though I know they would have been delighted to help me get started.
And if I hadn't gone along to a Christmas concert put on by a local brass band when I was 68, and heard the conductor saying that they had a training band, and would provide beginners with a free weekly lesson and loan them an instrument, I might never found out that I can make music, too.
The moral of my story? You NEVER know what you're capable of doing until you've tried - and what have you got to lose?
With best regards to you all,
Baritone Jack