Buffet Crampon R13 Silver Plated Professional Clarinet Review
Reviewed in 2026 by Jared Burchfield
Introduction: After my poor experience with the last R13 that I reviewed, I have been curious to see if this was true of other Buffet R13s. So when this silver plated R13 came into my shop for a general cleaning and oiling playing condition checkup, I thought I would take the time to review another newer R13 and see if my experience was any different. I tried my best to give an unbiased review on this instrument, disregarding my previous experience as much as possible and trying to approach this R13 like any other instrument I have reviewed on my website.
General Information: Buffet’s website suggests that the Buffet R13 was introduced in 1955, created by Robert Carreé. The instrument became incredibly popular after it was introduced, and is widely considered to be the golden standard of professional clarinets and is often preferred by college students, conservatory students, and professional players alike. This instrument is still in wide production by Buffet Crampon, and many directors, professors, and players of all levels consider the R13 to be a “holy grail” of sorts when it comes to professional clarinets. The R13 is often recommend as a good upgrade for college students or even advancing high school students. The specific R13 pictured here was made sometime between 2021 and 2022 and has silver plated keys rather than the nickel on my previous R13. As per the time of this review’s writing, the silver plated variant of the R13 retails new between $4600 and $5000 depending on the place of purchase.
Playability and Tuning: I used my typical set up with the Vandoren BD5 13, Rovner Mark III Dark Ligature, and Vandoren V12 size 3 1/2 reeds to test this clarinet. Right out of the gate, I noticed that the throat tones were incredibly stuffy, especially when going up from open G. The throat A was very flat and the throat B flat was absolutely horrendous. This clarinet has probably the stuffiest throat Bb I have ever heard, trending about 15 cents flat when playing at about a mezzo forte dynamic level. I did some adjustments on the A and G# keys to see if I could make things any better since the customer had also complained of their throat tones being very stuffy and flat, and while my adjustments helped somewhat I could never get it to a point were I was satisfied with the clarity of these notes. To be fair, I know that throat Bb and just the throat tone register in general is weak on a lot of clarinets, but this was significantly more stuffy and much more out of tune then any other clarinets I have owned personally. Aside from this, playability is fine on this instrument and much better then how I remember my other R13 behaving. The way that the R13 in general plays is not really my taste, as the sound almost feels a little bit too round and almost dull to me. It is really hard to describe because it is not really a bad sound but it is very different and I just feel like I can’t really project the way that I want to on these instruments. Any attempt to push dynamically results in the instrument going very flat while projection and volume really don’t change much at all. At lower dynamics though it was actually quite nice to play and I guess if you didn’t play above like a mezzo forte dynamically this might be a good clarinet for you. But for me, this instrument really didn’t handle louder dynamics well at all and it just felt very constricted and hard to manipulate.
While playing this instrument is better then I remember, the intonation certainly was not. This instrument was about 15-20 cents flat on average when picked up cold. While I understand many wooden clarinet are flat when cold, this one really didn’t improve much as it warmed up. Certain notes are significantly more flat then others, and you can hear these issues even when you play by yourself. For example, jumping the octave between low G and open G reveals that the octaves are not in tune with each other. Doing this with other jumps to the throat tone register reveals just how out of tune octaves are in the lower register and just how poorly the intervals match on this very expensive instrument even after my adjustments. Playing in the lower clarion is about 6-10 cents flat after warm up with everything pushed all the way in, and requires a pretty noticeable lip up to get most of it in tune. I reviewed this instrument on a very warm day when the outdoor temperature was about 90 degrees while the inside room temperature was about 77 degrees. If this instrument is already this flat on a day like this, I don’t want to imagine how flat it would be on a cold day. In the upper clarion of the instrument, the flatness continues and I would almost describe the sound up there as kind of harsh. Not really bright, but just very abrasive sounding. I tried a couple of different reeds and mouthpieces as my BD5 is the 13 series that makes instruments trend a bit flat, but the results were similar with other mouthpieces as well. Everything above clarion high B was incredibly flat in excess of 20 cents, and the altissimo, well, it was so flat that I would almost say it was unusable. It also felt very resistant and constricted as I went higher on the instrument, and even when I really tried to lip up and change my voicing those higher notes still stayed very flat. I got high C and B readings close to 40 cents flat assuming long B was in tune. Really not good on the intonation at all with this clarinet, and I hate to say that I have genuinely played Amazon clarinets that have better intonation then this instrument. Overall, playability is all right minus the stuffy throat tones, but the intonation is pretty bad and that is a fact that cannot be overlooked. Like this is how I would expect a cheap student instrument to play, not a $5000 professional model clarinet. I think that sums up my thoughts on playability pretty well.
Build Quality and Construction: At first glance, build quality seems just fine and I didn’t really see any inherent issues at first. This instrument is made of the traditional grenadilla blackwood that most clarinets on the professional level are made of, and much like the R13 that I owned previously this instrument has a history of cracking even when cared for properly according to the owner which is absolutely unacceptable for an instrument at this price range, age and level. I will say that whoever repaired the crack did an amazing job because I can’t even see where the crack was. I also find it funny that the logos on the bell and barrel are already starting to wear off in spite of the age of this instrument. The one on the barrel is completely gone and doesn’t look like it was stamped well in the first place. I’ve seen stamping issues on clarinets before, but those were on late model student Bundys and late Kenosha Vitos. Again I would expect something like that from a lower end instrument such as these, but on an instrument like the R13 all of the little details should be right, especially given the age.
This instrument has silver plated keys which look very nice and admittedly they are much better then the nickel plating option you can get on these instruments. Part of my job while I had this clarinet in my possession was to clean and polish all the keys, and after that was done the instrument looked absolutely beautiful. Plating seemed well applied overall, but there was one spot on the bottom of the second side trill key on the upper joint pictured above that looked as though the plating had never been applied? Really Buffet? I get that most people would never see this but still, this is a $5000 instrument. How do you mess this up? Overall, keywork action is quite good, although the throat A is incredibly mushy feeling for some reason and I really don’t like the way the LH pinky keys wobble around. Like other R13s, this instrument uses a nylon adjustment screw on the throat A key and also those silly nylon pins on the LH pinky keys which just make those keys feel weird and clunky to me. Like I said in the other review, on an instrument like this I would expect these parts to be metal as the nylon wears out quickly. The screw on this one is not stripped out, but you can already see where it has been marred from a screwdriver being in the slot. I think it is interesting to note though that there is an adjustment screw on the LH F/C key on the lower joint and it has a metal head, but a nylon pin at the back. Why didn’t they do this on the throat A key if they want to use the nylon to silence the key noise? At least it would’ve been a metal head that you could actually use, and I don’t see what makes the nylon so much quieter than my other clarinets with cork in between the keys in these spots. On a more positive note in relation to build quality, this instrument doesn’t seem to have any issues with joints getting stuck together due to tenon issues, although the center tenon does feel really tight even though the the cork is pretty worn down. It is important to consider that it was a warm day when I reviewed this instrument and most of those tenon problems on my R13 years back happened in the cold, so I’d be curious to get this instrument back in the cold and see if these issues are present. Minus the A key and LH pinky keys, the rest of th keywork is very quiet and precise and really I don’t have many complaints. I do think it is interesting that the instrument has a number of cork pads on the upper joint. I’ve heard this is a common practice on professional instruments and I don’t really know what advantage they offer or if this was a factory option or not but it is interesting to see nonetheless. I want to say that build quality seems all right on this particular instrument, but again the history of cracking on a fairly new instrument makes that sort of irrelevant. I’d also like to note that the ring around the bell clearly was not plated with the same kind of material that the keys were because it is incredibly worn out. This instrument is not that old, but this ring is already more tarnished than some of my vintage instruments? Either this has never been wiped down or the plating quality is just not great. I think you and I both know which one is likely true.
Case: This clarinet does have the original case with it and in the typical Buffet fashion the case is wrapped in leather. This leather looks like it is of pretty decent quality, although it does have a couple of chips where the leather has torn off. Not a big deal or a point against Buffet, especially given that this instrument is in active use and case damage is a thing that happens when an instrument is used a lot regardless of how careful you are. Something more unusual that does interest me though is the plating on the latches, which was very well worn around the key holes and where the handle is attached. This instrument is 5 years old and I am surprised to see this much wear on these latches that really don’t get that much handling or contact with human hands. The handle is very nice and feels comfortable in the hands and the latches do thankfully keep the case securely shut. Taking a look inside the case, the inside fabric looks like it is all pretty good quality and I don’t see any major problems with the build quality of the case materials. That being said, this case still fails fundamentally at holding the instrument joints securely in place. The upper and lower joint have about an inch of space that they can move in either direction. The lower joint is worse on this case than the upper, but the upper joint still has about an inch in both directions in which it can move around freely within the case. This case is a slightly different style then the case that I had with the older R13 that I reviewed previously but still it is still very concerning and unacceptable that this case still has this kind of problem. When paying these kinds of prices for an instrument, the joints of the instrument should all fit securely in the case. I have cheap student instruments that knock this out of the park. Why can’t Buffet get simple things right? And also, the plating wear on the latches is still annoying as well because while it doesn’t affect functionality it does still look tacky, especially on a instrument at this price point. I’m sorry to say, but I have to fail the Buffet case again.
Conclusion: Well, in spite of giving the R13 a second chance I am sorry to say that I am once again unimpressed. Though much better, this R13 still had the same fundamental issues as the R13 I reviewed some years back and some of the same quality issues as well that really make me dislike the R13 as an instrument. Now some people might say that I am being too picky, but I feel that my pickiness is justified. When you are paying $5000 or more for a standard Boehm system Bb clarinet that doesn’t even include the alternate Eb/Ab key, you should not have to deal with excessive wear on the case, keys that aren’t plated, faded and poorly stamped logos, and not to mention the severe tuning issues of the instrument. I feel as though an instrument at this price point should have significantly better intonation and better attention to details overall, especially given that I own many significantly cheaper clarinets from many other makers that play in tune much better and fit in the case correctly at the very least.
I think after trying a couple of these, I think we need to discuss an important topic that doesn’t relate to my personal feelings on this instrument and involves more real world tests and factual evidence. After all, even if you gave me a perfect R13 I probably still wouldn’t like it just because the R13 is not my taste or preferred instrument. But for you, I really just want to ask two simple questions: is the R13 worth the $5000 price tag? Should you consider it as a potential upgrade option as an advancing young player? While I had this instrument, I took the chance to play it some and compare it to some of the clarinets I play on a regular basis. This included 2 plastic Bundys, a plastic Conn 16, a wood Selmer Signet Soloist, and an ebonite Boosey & Hawkes Edgware. Though I tried some different mouthpieces and reed setups, I honestly struggled to find anything that made the R13 significantly better especially in the quality of sound and intonation department. With all biases aside, I genuinely felt that all of the clarinets sounded the same and nothing really stuck out to me about the R13s tone, other then of course all of the intonation issues and intervals that didn’t match. I mean sure the keywork was nice on the R13 and it looks beautiful aside from the faded logos, but there was nothing functionally the R13 could do that my other old clarinets of student and intermediate levels couldn’t.
This is not the first test I have done like this with an R13 either. I actually did a blind test with my clarinet studio and my teacher in 2025 in which I played the same excerpts on an R13, my 1960s Selmer Signet Soloist and a 1968 plastic Bundy as a part of a research project for a class in my masters degree. The results of my test showed that the Signet and Bundy both scored significantly higher than the R13 across all of the participants and my teacher even noted that the Bundy had better interval matching and better intonation then the R13 in my test. I was truly shocked by these results. I couldn’t make this up if I tried. So, do I think the R13 is worth it in light of my data? Absolutely not! I would never recommend or even so much as suggest that anyone waste their time and money on one of these incredibly overrated and overpriced instruments that can literally be bested by a plastic unrestored vintage Bundy with a good mouthpiece. And combining that with all of the build quality and playability issues that I have now observed on two randomly tested R13s, I really continue to wonder how Buffet continues to sell these things and why anyone recommends them as a good option to any player. Some say that the older ones are better, but I have played a few of those too and really they were nothing special. In fact, it was an older R13 from the 1960s that I played as a part of this test, and I wasn’t really impressed with it either for many of the same reasons that I listed in the review above.
So what should you do instead? Firstly, don’t be too quick to upgrade your instrument when you are not satisfied with your sound as a young player. A good mouthpiece that matches well with your playing style and your current clarinet is a much smarter upgrade that will make a much bigger difference in tone and tuning regardless of the material your instrument is made of, and will certainly cost a whole lot less. Do you want a darker sound? Try some different mouthpieces and get one that makes your sound darker. Secondly, practice is perhaps the most important part of becoming a better clarinetist, regardless of your setup. Do you want a rounder, fuller sound? Listen to recordings of great clarinet tone and practice long tones every day, and you will experience a much bigger difference then any $5000 clarinet can give you. Do you want better technique? Practice technique exercises consistently and use a metronome. Do you want better intonation? Take the time to learn the tendencies of your instrument and how to overcome them. Buying an expensive instrument like this DOES NOT make you sound better, improve your technique or improve your intonation. If you are expecting a turn key solution where you simply buy an instrument like this and suddenly you sound and play significantly better, prepare to be disappointed because that is just not reality. The only thing that fixes those issues is awareness and practice. Lastly, do research on your own and explore other brands and other options instead of taking recommendations at face value. If you feel as though you must upgrade, there are many other better and more affordable instruments out there that can sound just as good if not better then the R13. To conclude, the R13 really not worth it in my opinion as it is very overpriced and the value for the money is just not there, especially when there are many cheaper and better made instruments that can sound and perform at just as high of a level.