 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: eBay Junky
Date: 2003-01-04 01:42
What was the worst clarinet you ever played (Make and Model) and what made it so bad?
Mine would have been a Jeffrey Bb wooden clarinet (not sure of the model). The intonation was terrible and it was so stuffy, even after a fresh overhaul. It was so bad, I ended up donating it to charity. To this day I still feel guilty for taking the tax deduction on it.
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Author: Chris
Date: 2003-01-04 01:57
I'd have to say the Canardly. . .
You know, canardly play. . .
Chris
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Author: Rick
Date: 2003-01-04 03:42
A late 50's era student (plastic) Bundy, my first clarinet. I still have it and even today I find it very difficult to play in clarion and next to impossible, except by accident in altissimo. Reminds me of a clogged drain pipe with an attitude.
I fully plan to sell it someday for conversion to a lamp or perhaps to be encased in plastic or concrete, the later preferable.
Here is my E-Bay Ad:
Bundy Classic Professional Student Clarinet. Excellent condition with one owner. All pads and keyworks in 1st rate condition. As playable as the day it was built! This instument is guar-eeen-teed to help student develope strong embrouchure and fingers as well as the ability to transpose music into lower register. I know emough about clarinets to know that I prefer my Leblanc, which is why I'm selling this classic collectors item and piece of Americana. Comes complete with original form fitted plastic case, mouthpiece, ligerature, mouthpiece cap, 3 reeds of unknown orign, little music clip thingy for people who want or need to walk around in the rain while playing. Also included is the original swab made from real animal skin, which will be boiled before shipping and a small plastic box of cork greese.
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Author: D DOW
Date: 2003-01-04 14:06
The worst clarinets I have ever played are a set; of Yamaha Custom series 2 which I used in the early 90s. The intonation was incredibly bad with some notes bordering on 1/4 tone flat. To make matters worst I found the metal to be soft and pliable and clonky. I will never return to Yamaha for as long as I live. This does bnot mean however they are capable of producing fine clarinets, I have high regard for the Intermediate and Beginner models. as a professional who has worked orchestrally for some 20 years now I can honestly say the Yamaha experience was an all time low in terms of quality and...these instruments have built in obsolesence.
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-01-04 14:13
Any used, 'professionally owned' clarinet I have tried out has lead a hard life...
Having no professional aspirations, I can say the current crop of Yamahappers (particularly the CS models) are terrific.
My vote goes to the Conn Pan American 'propellor wood' horns.
Sort of like gargling with rusty bolts.
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Author: Bob
Date: 2003-01-04 15:59
An R13 I got on trial in the mail from a major midwest retailer who had claimed to have hand picked it.
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Author: Robert Small
Date: 2003-01-04 16:09
A used R13 I had years ago. The clarion register was so stuffy it was practically unplayable. Crossing the break was next to impossible. To be fair, it's possible--even likely--that this instrument had some adjustment issues. Nevertheless, it soured me on Buffets for all time.
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Author: Rob
Date: 2003-01-04 16:42
The worst I ever had the misfortune to play was a beautiful, new Buffet R-13, in 1975. The clarinet allowed me to produce a lovely sound but the intonation was so wild that it was unplayable. I found it difficult to believe that an item of such alleged high quality (and apparent poor quality) could have left it's place of manufacture or sale without the knowledge that this was nothing more than shoddy equipment. I have tried three times since then to find an R-13 that did not require (what I consider to be)excessive intonational compensation. I have play-tested many R-13s over the years, never finding a balance of workable intonation and playing characteristics. I gave up. I will not buy a Buffet clarinet as my experience has convinced me that Buffet is the Ford of the clarinet world. It's a shame really, because you can't beat the price (although it looks like Selmer/Paris is trying to).
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Author: William
Date: 2003-01-04 17:14
The clarinet that I picked up to play after a two week camping vacation through the western states. It just didn't play well at all!!!
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Author: Bob
Date: 2003-01-04 18:01
Ouch....Fords are great cars. Never had one with bad intonation or action. Some bad rocker panel rusting problems in the '50s,tho and a few tires that tended to run flat.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-04 19:29
Definitely several R-13s I tried years ago when I was trying to decide what 'good' clarinet I wanted to get stuck with at the time.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-01-04 22:40
Many of the repairs I get from schools. It is no wonder there is such a high drop out rate. The worst that was sent to me had a Tempo (not King but taiwanese) bell. An American lower joint either a Bundy or a Buescher, an unidentified upper joint and a mismatching barrell. They wanted it serviced. Needless to say it went straight back untouched hopefully to the junk pile. I have also experienced a 3 in 1 bassoon.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2003-01-05 02:12
I would have to say Pam Americans are consistantly the worst. There seems be a lot of these floating around here and of the dozens I've had to fix, only one was a fairly good player. As for structural integrity, I nominate just about any clarinet from mainland China. I've got coat hangers that have better metal in them that they use for their keys.
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Author: RA
Date: 2003-01-05 19:11
Well, I haven't gotte to a worst clarinet yet. I have played on a Leblanc student model for the past five years. Speaking of R-13's what does one recommend?
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Author: jenna
Date: 2003-01-05 20:24
Boo to the alto remark!
*flogs david*
=)
Worst horn... a Vito bass my community band owns.
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Author: Marge
Date: 2003-01-05 23:53
In the mid to late 1970s, when I was playing with the Washington College band (as a townie), while my clarinet was away for repadding and recorking, the director offered me a college-owned loaner for several weeks. It was a plastic Bundy (probably from the late 60s or early 70s), apparently the usual clarinet peddled around here at the time as a starter instrument, esp. to school students. The college probably had it (and several others like it) to be able to offer woodwind classes to music majors whose main instrument was something else.
It was almost impossible to get it to speak, and the tone (and intonation) was awful. When I got home from rehearsal, I was worn out from all the effort needed to play it, and practicing on it was simply out of the question. While it may indeed have needed some work/adjustment (like re leaks), what most struck me at the time was how discouraging such an instrument would be to a beginning player, esp. a young one. If I'd had such an instrument when I began, I probably would have been a pronto drop-out, never realizing that clarinets could play easier and sound much better and entirely blaming myself for the miserable results from attempting to play it.
Many years later (from the mid 90s) I started playing a borrowed plastic Vito, which I judge to be from the same general period (probably early 70s). Also a student instrument, it is a total contrast to the borrowed Bundy--comfortable keywork, sounds pretty good, easy to play, etc. A student starting out on it would have had an enjoyable, productive experience.Ï
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Author: Susan
Date: 2003-01-06 00:55
A high school owned Frankenstein of a Bundy. It inspired me to shop for my own horn. I bought a plastic Olds clarinet. It lasted me thru the first two years of college and I still have it now. It is not an R-13, but it is a very acceptable second horn.
Our first chair clarinet in the symphony hates bass clarinets of any kind. Says all she can get out of them is squeaks. I love playing bass and have no squeak problems.
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Author: Bob
Date: 2003-01-06 14:31
Interesting observation about a beginning student getting discouraged due to a bad clarinet and not realizing it wasn't his/her fault. Until I played many different horns I had no idea there could be such variation and the reasons are all over the map and involving different parts of the horn. It's like the difference between good and bad coffee, I guess.
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Author: tramette
Date: 2003-01-17 19:55
A plastic Yamaha with a plastic mouthpiece that had been almost bitten in two. I left my clarinet sitting on the bed when I went to practice that day, and I brought my case without the clarinet inside it. I had to use the school's clarinet instead, as well as the school's reeds. (Rico, boo.) I borrowed a Rico Royal from my friend since no one had anything better, and my box of Mitchel Lurie and box of Maccaferri reeds were both at home. I played that clarinet with that set-up and it was the most horrible thing. The top octave would scarecely play. The tone was terrible. Altissimo was impossible. And it squeaked. A lot.
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