Vintage 1905 Buffet Crampon Pre-R13 Clarinet--New Pads, Plays!

One of several professional clarinets we are offering for sale.  This is a vintage Buffet Crampon pre-R13 professional clarinet. It is very good condition:  grenadilla body has no chips, cracks, or repairs, and tenons are nice and square with no wobble between joints, which is unusual in a vintage horn such as this.  Cleaned, bore oiled, and had all new pads and corks installed at the end of 2023, and has been sitting in its case since because for some reason we forgot to list it for sale.  The key is somewhat elusive.  It’s higher pitched than most HP clarinets:  I tend to play all clarinets just a smidge flat, and I get open G as an F# at 372 Hz, low G as an F# at 185, and middle C as a B at 247, using a Buffet F3A mouthpiece with a tuner calibrated to 440.  It almost seems to be a B clarinet rather than an HP Bb, or could perhaps be a rarer French pitch Bb.  Measures 22-1/16” from bell to barrel which is a 62.5 and looks to be original to the instrument.   Plays with a really big, open tone compared to modern R13’s, with the usual intonation issues found in instruments of the period.  S/n V8XX makes this 1905—more than a hundred years old.  Fun to play, and fun to display!  Includes what is likely the original case, with a new ProTec nylon replacement handle cover.

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