 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Kenny G the chosen one
Date: 2026-11-03 14:44
I need to vent about a bizarre contradiction I keep seeing in the clarinet community, and I want to see if anyone else finds this as illogical as I do.
Why do so many players spend $4,000 to $8,000 on a high-end Buffet polycylindrical bore—like an R13 or a Tosca—specifically designed for that famous, vibrant "French ring" and projection, only to immediately panic at their own high-frequency overtones and try to muffle the instrument to death?
I constantly see people buying these vibrant horns and then immediately slapping on heavy-mass gear like massive Silverstein ligatures or ultra-dense Backun Fatboy barrels, along with thick rubber mouthpiece patches and stiff reeds, all in a desperate chase for an ultra-dark tone. By forcing the instrument to do something it wasn't acoustically designed to do, they are just fighting the physics. You add massive resistance, deaden the response, lose the dynamic range, and destroy the projection in a real hall just to make it sound "cozy" to your own ears in a tiny practice room.
If your tonal ideal is a pitch-black, covered, velvety sound, doesn't it make infinitely more acoustic sense to start with an inherently darker instrument and open it up, rather than choking a bright one?
A strategic approach would be starting with an instrument engineered for warmth and fundamental depth from the ground up:
• Yamaha CSGIII: Thicker walls, German-influenced bore, inherently dark core.
• Buffet RC Family (RC, Prestige, Divine): A smoother, rounder, more focused taper than the R13.
• Yamaha SE Family (SEVR, Artist): Designed specifically for that fat, warm, European orchestral warmth.
If you start with an RC, an SE, or a CSGIII, your baseline is already dark and full. If you need a bit more "ping," center, or brilliance to cut through, you can make an efficient acoustic adjustment: use a lighter, highly resonant ligature or a slightly more free-blowing mouthpiece. This reduces resistance, makes the horn more agile, and keeps the natural resonance alive. Adding brilliance to a dark bore works with the physics; throttling a vibrant bore with heavy hardware works against it.
Why are we so obsessed with treating the R13/Tosca as the only "default" option, only to spend hundreds more on heavy gear to cancel out the exact qualities we paid for? Let's discuss.
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