Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2018-12-17 07:24
The OP here was very instructive to me, and thought I would share a recent experience. My old Selmer clarinets are wonderful, but....old. I worry that I'm addicted to them and they are wearing out. I have experimented with several Leblanc models and they have not replaced my addiction to free-blowing, warm sounds. Before I bought the old Selmers I (like many) had a couple of R13s that were always too resistant for a sax-player like myself. As a technician, I work on Student and Intermediate Yamahas often and am always impressed by the keywork and intonation.
I got a bug to try out some professional level Yamahas...there are a few stores around that sell them. Liked some but the sticker shock was high.
So I began trolling "the auction site". Saw a lot of really beat up YCL-650s at affordable prices and some Customs at high resale prices. Noticed that there were several reputable shops in Japan selling used clarinets and were good at providing more pictures and educated assessments of the various ones. Some were actually listed for less than $1000.
A couple weeks ago, I pulled the trigger on a clarinet with the SE bore. Early model, the Yamaha support people (very helpful) had trouble figuring out when it was made as the serial numbers are unique to factories, not models, etc... After some back and forth and providing the auction images of logos, I got the reply "So it turns out your clarinet is actually a special order instrument by the music store Shimokura-gakki in Tokyo. It is a YCL-SE Custom manufactured in May 1992." Other than some Vitos, this is the newest clarinet I have ever owned.
I received it today. The case has a metal decal on it...the only English is the word SHIMIKURA, so I know Yamaha support got it right. While it's tarnished and a couple corks had fallen off, the wood is beautiful and un-marred, the keywork doesn't even look like a screwdriver has touched, the pads look like original with very faint impressions, and the case smells old. It plays wonderfully, with a big fat tone and perfect intonation (although a few notes have to be surgically fingered to get around missing corks); of the clarinets I own, it is most like a highly refined version of my Series 9 to play. Remarkably, it was $720 all in!!
This will get cleaned up a little and played before I decide what type of overhaul it deserves.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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