The cheap ones are $75, and I'm definitely not buying that.

She's looking at this one, and her section leader thinks it will do alright. I have no idea, I played brass instruments for the short period I did band.

Oh heck yeah I can recommend a good and cheap clarinet. I play on a Buffet Crampon E11 now, but when I started last January I bought a Jean Paul CL300 Clarinet. When I realized I was going to be seriously into clarinet, that's when I got the Buffet, but the Jean Paul was not exactly holding me back. I'm still a little in awe of how inexpensive it is for the quality. I mean it's a $200 instrument and not sounding bad even when compared to a $1800 instrument. I was so impressed that when I got my alto sax I got another Jean Paul.

As with any starter instrument, the mouthpiece it comes with was nothing special, and I recommend that you get an inexpensive Yamaha like a 4C to start, or if you really like Clarinet, then look into some of the Vandorens.

They seem to be made in China, but are well put together and it looks like final assembly and inspection is done in the states. The only problem I ever had with it was I needed to adjust some of the pad heights to fix some minor leaking in the bottom pad. Literally took 20 seconds to fix.

If you've never played before, get some Rico 2.0 strength Bb clarinet reeds, and they will help you get a good tone until your embouchure strength improves. Later you might want to switch to Vandoren reeds which are a little stiffer but last longer.

Another option is just rent a clarinet for awhile to see if it's a good fit for you. A wooden E11 can be rented for $40-$60 a month and it's a fine instrument.