 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Cammyron
Date: 2005-01-29 11:32
I would like to relate my recent experience to you wonderful people. Seachign the archives of this site gave me the courage to go out and at least test a Jupiter Parisene clarinet.
"Never buy an instrument named after a planet, dinosaur or an animal" Thats the saying isn't it?
Well after breaking that rule many years ago (i had a lark cornet that cost me nothing and was a big piece of......you get the point). Taking that into account with the quality of Jupiter's brass and woodwinds of the early 90's, i was dubious about my new clarinet purchase.
I wanted and r13, but couldn;t justify the money for it, not with uni depts, etc to take care of. I only play for fun in a couple of concert bands here in Melbourne, Australia. So lashing ot for the R13 seemed a bit silly to me. So i strated considering second hand R13's. Still too expensive and you don;t really know their full history. SO i had decided that and E11 or E13 Buffet might be a good compromise. So began the search for a decent price, no way was i paying full retail price. So i come across melbourne brass and woodwinds website. Good prices and the store had been recomended to my by several people. On their website listed in the professional clarinet section was a Jupiter Parisienne clarinet for about 60% the cost of an R13 ($1200 vs $3300). Straight away the lights and sirens went off. Eeewww Jupiter, they ain;t any good. And for the price there has to be something wrong with it.
My curiosity got the better of me and i started searchign the web for any people that had had experience with this model of clarinet. All the people that had seemed to congregate on only this website:)
After reading lots of stuff in the archives i find out that some peopel are of the opnion that the Parisienne is a copy of the R13 and that if you get a good one they are very good for the price.
So i bit the bullet and went and tested one out. It was great, i tested it with an R13 to see what the difference was. Not much that i could tell. The key action was virtually identical, maybe a little tighter on the Jupiter. And the blowing on the R13 was a little easier, but not by a really noticible amount. Other than that there were no differences i could pick up in my little test session, at least nothing that warranted handing over and extra $2100 anyway.
i have now done two full rehersals with it and will be doing another one tomorrow. It hasn't failed me yet, the only gripe is that the thumb rest is a bit uncomfortable. The thumb plate sits about 2-3mm out from the body of the clarinet and after a while your thumb gets pinched between the thumb rest and the body. Easily fixed though.
Sorry to rant on but i am very happy with my new purchase (especially for the price of it), i would like to thank the few people that have talked about these instruments before and would encourage anyone who is looking at upgrading or even buying their first instrument (the price isn;t much more that a good student clarinet) to seriously consider a jupiter, at least try a coupel and see what you think. Bring your own mouth peice though, the one included is not good.
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Author: Cammyron
Date: 2005-01-29 11:50
One other thing i forgot to add was that i had a friend who plays an R13 have a blow on it and her only coment was. "The A key is a bit stiff". Ohterwise she thought is was the same as her R13:)
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2005-01-29 12:08
Hi,
From what I have heard, the Jupiter is not quite the same as the typical CSO. A clarinet tech told me a few years ago (also a clarinet major grad at a large Big 10 School) that the Jupiter clarinets were very good.
I'm just passing on the story as I have never played one but I respect this person's opinion very much.
HRL
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Author: pewd
Date: 2005-01-29 16:34
i'd be interested i knowing how it is a year from now, with 500-600 hours on it ; e.g., how durable is it.
-paul
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-01-29 18:46
I was at the music shop a few days ago getting a slight problem on my clarinet fixed and the owner had a person auditioning saxes. He brought one down and gave it to the boy's teacher (who was there helping him try out saxes) and said, "Do me a favor, just try this one."
It was a Jupitor tenor saxaphone, and to my ears sounded pretty good. I thought that at first it was probably because the player was good and my ears are unexperienced with sax sounds, but I overheard the the player say that he was really pleasantly surprised and never would have expected that type of sound out of a jupitor sax.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Cammyron
Date: 2005-01-29 21:46
well if i remebr in a years time i will let you know how its going:)
does anyone else out there own one?
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2005-01-30 02:21
One of my former students owned a Jupiter clarinet. I don't know how reliable it was in terms of not constantly falling apart, but the intonation was fine, the sound was even across the whole range, and when I played it the sound was one of the nicest I've heard, especially out of a student clarinet.
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Author: Cammyron
Date: 2005-01-30 02:28
the Parisienne is not a student model clarinet. It is classified as a proffessional model. I would more likely list is as a high intermediate however. I have heard many good reports of jupiters student saxaphones but not much on their higher end gear.
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