Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2020-09-04 09:17
Hi Jenny,
It's really difficult to give you much advice about used clarinets without handling them or, at least, knowing more about the sellers and the repair techs who refurbished them. The quality of repair techs can range from outstanding to ... well, let's just say not very good and whether a refurbished instrument is a good investment at a given price will depend on the repair tech's abilities and the condition of the instrument before the tech started to work on it.
Because you have limited experience, I think your best bet might be to contact a good local teacher and work with him/her to select an instrument. That's a bit more difficult these days with Covid19 but, if you can identify a good teacher, you might be able to figure something out. Some lessons, at least while you are starting back, would also be a good idea, IMO. You don't say where you are located but if you are near a college or university with a good music program, you might try contacting the clarinet faculty member there and/or, if you are near a professional orchestra, you might try contacting the clarinetists. Often they know of good instruments for sale locally and you might be able to get a better price on a newer instrument than the ones (particularly the Buffets) you have turned up.
A refurbished good quality professional instrument may or may not be a better investment than a new intermediate instrument. It depends on the condition of the refurbished professional clarinet. Unlike violins, clarinets do not improve with age. Without seeing them, I would be concerned about the two R13s you mention. From the 1960s or 70s until now is a long time, and you don't know where these instruments have been, how they've been used, or how they've been cared for during that time. They might be great clarinets but they may also have developed structural problems over the years (e.g., a warped bore) that an overhaul, even by a great tech, can't fix -- and I suspect you aren't really in any better position to evaluate the repair tech's abilities than you are to evaluate the instruments, themselves. If I were you, I would not buy either of these instruments without an independent expert's opinion. Actually, if I were you, I would not buy any refurbished professional clarinet without an independent expert's opinion. (FWIW, the Yamaha is considerably newer. If memory serves, it dates to the mid- to late- 1990s or possibly the early 2000s. I have no idea what the other "custom" horn is.)
After thinking about this, I actually wonder if (again working in conjunction with a good teacher) you might be best served to start with a good condition used student model instrument. This would entail a smaller investment while you get back up to speed and, if you decide to stick with it, will give you a "bad weather" horn for outdoors when/if you eventually buy a professional instrument.
To answer some of your other questions:
Re: the price difference between the 1960s and 1970s R13s. I suspect the reason is more likely age and condition than design. Buffet did make some design changes in the early 1970s (a 1970s instrument before the change will be the same design as one from the 1960s). Probably the most important change was to move the register hole by 1 mm. It's long been a subject for debate as to whether the changes were actually improvements. Many clarinetists actually consider the older design superior. A famous U.S. repair tech, Hans Moennig, claimed the change signaled the end of Buffet's "Golden Era."
Re: reasonableness of the specific prices. I looked at the websites of some well-regarded repair techs who sell refurbished R13s. The prices they were asking for similar vintage instruments were in the ballpark with what your local shops were asking. FWIW, assuming all the instruments are in very good condition, I think the Yamaha might be the best buy. It is considerably newer and in the Yamaha line, the Custom CS was actually a slightly higher-end model compared to the R13 in the Buffet line. (Again, FWIW, I can say this because I regularly play both a 1960s R13 and a Yamaha CS, which was the immediate predecessor of and, as far as I can tell, the same design as the Custom CS.)
Re: professionals on You Tube/recordings/live. (My opinion.) Any differences are far more likely to be from their sound concept than their equipment. And differences attributable to their clarinet may be more than offset by differences attributable to their mouthpiece and their physical characteristics.
Finally, (and not everyone agrees with me on this) my recommendation to anyone looking to buy a clarinet is: don't buy a clarinet that's older than you are for your front line instrument (unless you have a specific need such as traditional jazz or klezmer). If a clarinet is 50 years old now, how old will it be when you're 60? How many people are playing instruments that old today?
Best of luck in your search and your return to the clarinet.
Best regards,
jnk
Post Edited (2020-09-04 09:28)
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