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Re: Berkeley brand clarinets?

Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-12-03 05:05

Berkeley clarinets are your typical Chinese clarinet-shaped-objects. The build quality and fit/finish tends to be very poor. The playing characteristics will generally be quite poor as well.

Realistically you are going to need to spend at least $1000 to get a halfway decent NEW A clarinet. You can occasionally find them used starting in the $400 range but these are usually rather old models. Newer used A clarinets typically sell for $1000+ at which point most amateur players are better off just buying a new one.

A couple of years ago I was in the same position as you looking for an inexpensive A clarinet. You may want to try the same strategy I did. Look for a Boosey & Hawkes A clarinet made from hard rubber. B&H made a lot of professional clarinets out of hard rubber that were supposedly meant for use by military bands stationed in tropical climates. These were made to the same specifications as the wooden versions but tend to sell for a very small fraction of the price. I picked up one of these for ~$200 including shipping from the UK and it is a quite serviceable instrument, certainly better than a Berkeley or any of the other cheap Chinese brands. If you check the UK version of the famous internet auction site these hard rubber B&H A clarinets tend to show up fairly regularly.

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Berkeley brand clarinets? new

ch_zonie

2012-12-03 02:19

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

michael13162

2012-12-03 04:25

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

SteveG_CT

2012-12-03 05:05

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Chris P

2012-12-03 07:13

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

tictactux

2012-12-03 07:23

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

David Spiegelthal

2012-12-03 10:57

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

ch_zonie

2012-12-03 15:20

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

SteveG_CT

2012-12-03 16:20

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

3dog

2018-05-18 04:33

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

3dog

2018-10-29 00:24

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Chris P

2012-12-03 15:58

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

tictactux

2012-12-03 16:34

Ferard Jerome new

ch_zonie

2012-12-03 17:01

Re: Ferard Jerome new

SteveG_CT

2012-12-03 20:30

Ferard Jerome new

ch_zonie

2012-12-03 21:11

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Chris P

2012-12-03 21:30

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

David Spiegelthal

2012-12-03 21:53

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

David Spiegelthal

2012-12-04 02:15

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

ch_zonie

2012-12-03 22:13

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Ursa

2012-12-03 22:35

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Chris P

2012-12-03 22:42

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Ursa

2012-12-03 22:51

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Ursa

2012-12-04 08:33

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Chris P

2012-12-04 09:22

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Bobby McClellan

2012-12-06 02:28

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

David Spiegelthal

2012-12-06 13:06

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

ch_zonie

2012-12-06 15:39

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

David Spiegelthal

2012-12-06 18:21

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

ch_zonie

2012-12-06 19:17

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Sean.Perrin

2012-12-09 00:16

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

ch_zonie

2012-12-09 01:14

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

jdbassplayer

2018-05-18 07:40

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Chris P

2018-05-18 11:59

Re: Berkeley brand clarinets? new

Dibbs

2018-05-18 16:26

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