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Re: Come try out the Uebel clarinets!

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-11-23 04:10

Did I see any of you in Madison today?

The place was packed and as usual with music fairs it was a bit of a challenge to do real testing but I had fun anyway.

The Superior model Uebel plays much darker than its cousin the Advantage. First let me tell you about the interesting part. If you look at the photo on the website the bell appears to have a round emblem on it. This is actually a vent hole for low "E" and low "F." I did not (unfortunately) put this to the test on a tuner because I got pulled away just at that critical moment.....shade! Overall I'd say the Superior plays and sounds more like the RC Buffet line. It is definitely a more mellow sound.

The Preference is in between the Advantage and the Superior and sounds that way too. It tunes more like the advantage and the sound is slightly more subdued......pretty much exactly a hybrid between the models above and below it.

Here is a real world advantage to these horns. The keys are plated VERY heavily. The Classic through the Advantage have silver plating at almost 10 microns in thickness. About three times what you get from EVERYBODY else. Now the top two Uebel models feature 20 microns of silver plate. No one would EVER have an issue of wearing out or acid erosion on these keys!

Also the bore is carefully aged and reamed out slowly with the natural resin still in it. This does two things. You get a bore that polishes as smooth as glass AND there is no need to even think about bore oiling for at least the first five years!!!! Compare that with "other brands" that kiln dry their wood to mass produce their instruments. In addition to that, properly aged wood won't "settle" differently from the time of manufacture to the time you try it. This equates to the tuning remaining what was heard at the factory......no odd tuning issues post manufacture.

Finally I thought the bass is a wonderful addition to the market. It is a very sturdily made horn. The keys don't seem to 'give' and probably won't go out of adjustment like some other bass clarinets. The lower octave was rock solid and the clarion was also impressive. I did need to engage the 'half hole' from the altissimo "D" which is not necessary on the other top brands but this would be a matter of getting used to a mild difference. Also the RH paddle keys were quite thin (width wise that is, making for smaller targets), but I'm sure a few hours of play would make that difference disappear as well.

A very impressive line-up from Uebel.

.............Paul Aviles

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