Buffet Crampon Transitional R13 Made in 1954 - serviced and ready to play

This is a professional vintage clarinet (Made in 1954) made by Buffet Crampon. It has been serviced in April 2026 for a new tenon cork at the bottom of the lower joint, oiled, cleaned, a few pads replaced, keys adjusted, and several key corks were replaced. Upper joint, lower joint, barrel, and bell all have the Buffet Crampon logo and MADE IN FRANCE etched in the wood.

No cracks or defects in the wood. The keys are unplated as was the custom of the time that it was built. These unplated keys are sometimes called German Silver and shows no corrosion or other defects.

The pads are double bladder skin pads. The pads were replaced a few years ago.

The barrel is 64mm in length.

The serial number for this clarinet is in the 48XXX series and is printed on both upper and lower joints. This translates to a 1954 made clarinet according to the Buffet clarinet look up serial number table charts. My technician describes this clarinet as a transitional R13, which means that Buffet started putting in the R13 clarinet design characteristics earlier before they officially were designated as R13's. This 48XXX series clarinet shares many common traits of the R13 that would soon come into production just months afterwards. These traits are:

1) Barrel shaped trill guide at the upper joint for the two top trill keys. All R13's have the barrel shaped trill guide. The pre-R13 clarinets had the triangular shaped trill guide.

2) Upper joint bridge key with "wings" or "T" shape at the end. The earlier pre-R13 clarinets just had a rectangular shaped key instead of the "wings". All R13's have the winged shape bridge key.

3) Wood cutouts below the crow's foot (the 4 right hand pinky keys) of the lower joint). All R13s have this cutout feature.

4) Playing characteristics of an R13. My technician said it sounds and tunes like a R13 of that time period.

5) It has a polycylindrical bore. I measured several places along the clarinet.

Upper joint bore diameter at the top is 14.74 mm

Upper joint bore diameter at the bottom is 14.65 mm

Lower joint bore diameter at the top is 15.05 mm

The diameter gets slightly smaller along the length of the upper joint and then widens out at the lower joint.

My technician said this 1954 clarinet is probably a transitional R13 (ie a clarinet that adopts much of the R13 design aspects before it became officially known as an R13). This makes sense to me, as 1955 became the debut year of the R13.

I play tested it and it plays well. I added a black felt disc onto the wood below the C#/G# left hand pinky key of the upper joint to reduce the key pad cup height opening distance and to silence the key from hitting the wood. It can be easily removed if you'd like - it is just a peel and stick felt pad. And the sticky residue left from the felt disc can be cleaned off with a little bit of rubbing alcohol using a q-tip.

The clarinet comes in a Protec case that has a shoulder strap inside the zippered compartment pouch on the front of the case.