Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2019-08-01 18:16
I was highly impressed with the Uebel professional instruments, with the Superior being especially dark, the Superior II being surprisingly different and more complex and seeming to emphasize both dark and bright resonances, and the Excellence having a beautiful blended sound. The Uebel Zenit was again very different, noticeably free-blowing, and I found myself wanting more time and a much quieter environment to compare these instruments in.
The Patricola Artista clarinets were really good. The Artista's sound seemed comparable to the Uebel Excellence, a blended, even sound in all registers. Prospective buyers should if possible give them a try to compare them head-to-head with bigger name brands.
I was also highly impressed with the Schwenk und Seggelke clarinets, which had a gorgeous, free-blowing sound that seemed perfectly uniform from bottom to top. Perhaps they didn't make the biggest sound in the world, but what they could do was almost dreamily good.
And the Tosca I tried, professionally selected and set up, was awesome. Every note sounded dead-on intonation-wise and perfectly equal in resistance, and the sound was just terrific. After I'd tried a couple Vintage, Tradition, and RC instruments, (of which I liked the RC easily the best,) the Tosca blew me away.
All the top of the line clarinets I tried by Uebel, Buffet, Schwenk & Seggelke, and Patricola were probably excellent beyond my ability to assess, and I'd love to own any of them as primary instruments. I wasn't in the market to buy replacements for my R13's, but if in the future I am I will gladly try, in a better environment, more of those instruments, as well as those by makers like Yamaha, Backun, and others. There's a lot of great options right now.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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