Firm women last with ballet centre instrument (7)
I believe the answer is:
cowbell
'instrument' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'firm women last with ballet centre' is the wordplay.
'firm' becomes 'co' (abbreviation for company).
'women' becomes 'w' (standard abbreviation).
'last' becomes 'be' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'centre' says to take the centre.
The middle of 'ballet' is 'll'.
'co'+'w'+'be'+'ll'='COWBELL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cowbell that I've seen before include "Percussion instrument" , "produced neat chime" , "It's heard among Alpine herds" , "alarm for rural use?" .)