I took up the clarinet in 1996, before I learnt sax. I was lucky enough to get myself a good secondhand Corton, c.1970s. It's a wooden one and it cost me £90. I once met up with the MD of Rosetti UK, Corton's importers, who took a look at it for me. Said he'd always found them good quality instruments and it was a sad day when they stopped selling them. He also said I'd be pushed to find something of better quality and tone for under £1000 today which, for something sold as a student instrument, isn't bad going.
For a young novice you won't go far wrong with a Yamaha. Their student models aren't overly pricey, around £400 new, but are of good, consistent quality and will retain their value should you want to sell or upgrade at a later stage, probably around Grade 5 or so, so plenty of life in it. Jupiter are pretty good too, although not quite so 'depreciation-proof'. You could try asking your daughter's school too - there may be other students upgrading and wanting to sell, and some authorities have special buying arrangements with suppliers which may mean you could get something a little cheaper via the school.
If money's no object, then Leblanc are worth a look. Their instruments look and sound absolutely beautiful.
There are basically three types of material from which clarinets are made. The most expensive ones are wood. They need slightly more care than the others in order to stop them cracking, but they do have the nicest sound. The cheapest are made of plastic, but don't let that put you off. There are some very good quality plastic clarinets out there and of course, they don't suffer quite so much if you don't look after them properly. In between are the plastic/wood compounds, purporting to offer the best of both worlds. There are also some metal clarinets out there, but I've never tried one and never really heard one so I couldn't tell you any more about them.
Oh, and just a word. A music trade friend showed me a broken Lyons C Clarinet the other week, an instrument that had been taken into his shop for repair. Now, not that any self-respecting 14 year old is likely to be interested in one of these, but I can tell you the quality is dire. The one I was shown was virtually unrepairable. Plastic and of cheap quality, it looked like a child's toy. What it sounded like, I wouldn't like to hazard a guess. Thing is, apparently, they're not that cheap for what they are.
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