Larry,
To address your points:
1. C clarinets date back to the days of simple system keywork, when players would have clarinets in a number of keys to cope with music in many keys. With the "modern" clarinet, that became largely unnecessary. The 19th century C clarinet had a bore and special mouthpiece that was proportioned smaller. Some time in 20th century, C clarinets were introduced with similar bore to the Bb, so they could use the Bb mouthpiece. To compensate for the proportionally too-long MP, the barrel is made very short. The whole instrument is about 2 1/4 inches (5.7 cm) shorter than a Bb.
If you put a very short barrel on your Bb clarinet you will throw off the proportions. If you tune the upper notes, the lower will be WAY off, or vice-versa. The entire instrument must be proportioned smaller to maintain the scale.
There are relatively few orchestral and operatic parts written especially for C clarinet, so there is not a lot of demand on the professional front (it is filled by some European makers). But people who want to read vocal or piano, violin or oboe music like the C clarinet. It is also easier to play with a lot of folk and string music, where Bb is often awkward.
The hard rubber C clarinets from China are essentially very good. I buy them, and upgrade them to what I call "concert quality", then re-sell them with my own guarantee. They always have some defects from imperfect assembly, but with some loving care, they are fine. I play mine a lot.
Excuse me for "tooting my own horn", but here is a link to my page on which I promote my little enterprise:
http://www.windydankoff.com/black-hole-clarinets.htmlWe have had other C clarinet discussions in this group, but not they are hard to find because when you put "C clarinet" in the search box, it won't except a 1-letter word.
