Author: John Peacock
Date: 2015-09-21 00:45
Adding to this dormant thread to report my recent experience in buying a C clarinet (finally pushed into this by Strauss's Frau Ohne Schatten).
I'd seen reasonable reports here about the Amati 354S, but on the basis that you should always avoid the cheapest of anything, I thought I'd give Buffet a try first. On a limited budget, that meant the E11 - which is nearly twice the price of the Amati, and you get what you pay for, don't you?
No.
The Buffet very quickly went back, and I am now a pretty happy owner of an Amati. I was prepared for a few dodgy notes, and happy to do a bit of work filling or reaming holes to even things out. But some notes on the Buffet were astonishingly far out relative to the rest - incredibly sharp throat notes, and almost a semitone flat towards the top of the altissimo. But more seriously, the whole instrument was rather low in pitch. Even when fully warmed up, I couldn't properly get it to 440, and for any sort of quick change the pitch error would be grotesque.
OK, this could be me at fault, but I've played decent C's in the past (e.g. Noblet) and not had this problem. And it's not there with the Amati. On opening the case, the omens were immediately good: you get two tuning barrels. But the overall pitch is fine even with the longer one. The relative tuning is also pretty good: altissimo is fine, and I didn't experience the general flatness of the throat notes that others have found. The bell has a hole of about 4mm diameter, which brings up the B (still slightly flat, but tolerable). The small-diameter C hole mentioned above is still present, but it seems to be doing its job, and that note is not flat.
Furthermore, the Amati build quality seems much better than Buffet. Their keys look incredibly cheap, with the long LH pinky keys made of bits of metal soldered together. The Amati keys are much more traditionally made, and well plated. Buffet has painted-on logos that rub off almost immediately, but Amati's are engraved. And so on. This is the only Amati I've ever played, but on this basis their other instruments must be worth serious attention.
Finally, praise for Dawkes Music of Maidenhead, who were very helpful and efficient in sending out instruments for trial (with free postage), and in organising couriers to take back the unwanted ones.
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