Most of these instruments are polished, boxed, shrink-wrapped and placed on the shelves of big box retailers where parents of budding musicians are lured by the price. For example a plastic student-model clarinet from a name-brand maker may retail for $350 while an ISO clarinet may sell for as little as $200.

"It's getting harder and harder to do business anymore," said Miller-Sell. "People are just looking for the least expensive instrument they can get and, unfortunately, these are not made here in the U.S. that has the quality we're used to."

As hard as dealers and manufacturers have been hit by ISOs, the real damage may be to the beginning musicians who are handed these instruments. Frustration builds as the students struggle with the ISOs until they finally quit, thinking they lack the musical talent when the real culprit is the instrument itself.

To combat the influx of ISOs, Blessing relies on teaching. When an ISO comes in for repair, Miller-Sell said her company will refuse to work on them and then explain to the parents the difference between an ISO and a name-brand musical instrument. She said once the parents are educated, they typically return the ISO and purchase a better quality instrument.

"Foreign instruments are here to stay," Miller-Sell said. "The only thing I can see is it's education, education, education .... We just have to get through to them. It cannot be about price. It has to be about quality if you want your child to have a successful music experience."

The message about quality seems to have created a line at the return counter of big box merchants. Pointing to a decline in imports from China, Brian Majeski, editor of the publication The Music Trades, said retailers may have tired of making returns for musical instruments that are not a big seller to begin with when compared to the other items in the store.

"We're seeing wind instruments as occupying less space and there's less enthusiasm than there was a year or two years ago," Majeski said.

Indeed, Majeski foresees sales of quality music instruments as being "reasonably good" in 2006. For 40 years, sales of wind and brass instruments have been stable around 600,000 while sales of stringed instruments have "increased dramatically" over the past decade.

"It's not a growth market but it's certainly not in a tailspin," Majeski said of instrument manufacturing.

Local flute manufacturer Gemeinhardt is growing its share of the market against ISOs by diversifying its offerings of instruments and by forming a partnership with a foreign manufacturer. Gemeinhardt, which formed Gemstone Musical Instruments Co. in 2005, has entered into a partnership with Angel Musical Industries in Taiwan to assist with the production of student model flutes to control costs for dealers. The bodies, with parts and metal supplied by Gemeinhardt, are assembled in Asia, then the headjoints and final assembly are completed in Elkhart.

"That kind of collaboration gives us the cost advantage we need," said Carolyn Manley, director of marketing for Gemstone.

Similarly, Artisan Strings, a division of Gemstone, sources violins, violas, cellos and basses from Europe and Asia and then adjusts the bridges, adds the strings and does the final setup in Elkhart.

Utilizing foreign-based instrument makers allows Gemstone to produce quality instruments at competitive prices. As Manley pointed out, better does not mean expensive.

Contact Marilyn Odendahl at modendahl@etruth.com.