Author: seabreeze
Date: 2018-02-20 10:01
I'm bringing this thread back after over a week because I'm surprised owners of Buffet Greenline clarinets did not respond. I don't own a Greenline but I have tried a few and heard several players, some students and some pros play on them, so I can at least give my impressions. When the Greenlines first came out many players complained that the sound was not the same as what they were accustomed to on wooden Buffets and also pointed out that the Greenlines would be subject to breaking at the tenon joints. These observations are true as far as they go, but there are many more positive features these clarinets have that need to be stated as well. I, and many players I know who grew up playing wooden Buffets find the general tendency of the Greenlines is to play a bit more subdued and perhaps darker sounding throughout their range than their wooden equivalents. When you consider all the money players spend selecting "fat boy" and cocobolo barrels to tone down the upper partials on the wooden Buffets, they might just consider using the Greenlines instead. I've found that most Greenline players don't go looking for "after-market" barrels much and are rather pleased with the ones that come with the instrument. Also, none of the players I know personally have had any trouble with their Greenlines fracturing on the tenons.
Some fans of Greenlines believe that that material is harder or denser than wood and therefore allows drilling tools to achieve a greater level of accuracy in making and undercutting the tones holes than can be accomplished on wooden instruments. Indeed, Buffet boasts that its newest model, the Legende, has Greenline tonehole inserts to stabilize the pitch. So to get that same stability for much less in a Greenline R13 should be considered a bargain.
I find the tone of Greenline R13s very stable, concentrated, and ringing though noticeably darker and more covered than I get on most wooden R13s. At the very competitive Ghent Clarinet Competition in Brussels in 2017, one of the finalists, Vitor Fernades played the Spohr 4th Clarinet Concerto on a Buffet Greenline instrument though I'm not sure if it was an RC, an R13, or a Festival Greenline. You can see and hear the performance
in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vitor+fernandes+plays+Spohr+4+Clarinet+Concerto.
The Greenline certainly supports his excellent interpretation in every way. Good intonation, very expressive, even tone across all registers, and not screechy at all on those very exposed and scary passages in the upper altissimo. I compared his performance with that of many seasoned players including Karl Leister, Gary Dranch, Sabine Meyer, and Paul Meyer, and in many ways I prefer the way Fernades sounds. Of course credit for that must go to him, not to his clarinet. But having a Greenline certainly did not hurt him. So I think Greenlines are worthy of serious consideration as fine pro level clarinets. Certainly you should try some for yourself.
Post Edited (2018-02-21 08:11)
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