Hi everyone. My 10 year son plays piano and has requested to learn the clarinet at school also. I am after some advice on what brand to buy and money is an issue. Am i better off with a second hand Yamaha for example, or try a cheaper brand as those found on Ebay (please don't be offended). Many thanks.

vitos are legitimate instruments for beginners, too- i still have mine from 5th grade, we got it fixed once in like 6th grade because i was a stupid elementary school kid, but since then it hasn't needed any service at all even with a year of marching it, including getting dropped on the asphault (my cork grease melted). i don't know how much mine was becuase we did that rent to own thing (which ends up making it more expensive than buying it outright)

in general you're probably better off going with a beginner instrument from a reputable brand, even second-hand, than a cheap ebay instrument, because lots are made in china or places like that and are very poor quality. if you find someone on ebay that sounds like a real person selling their beginner clarinet for whatever reason (got a new one, etc) thats one thing, but there's a lot of crap on there, and if you don't know much about clarinets its harder to tell if the things writtten about it even make sense.

Look into a Buffet B12. It's what I started on and I loved it. It served me well until 10th grade, when I upgraded to an R13. Their mechanisms and eveness of scale are up with some other wooden intermediate models.

Buffet (many rave about them) B12 for about $608 on Amazon