Boosey and Hawkes “The Edgware” Clarinet

Introduction: There was a time in my life not too long ago where I was pretty careless and overly confident in my ability to repair instruments. This led me to buy just about any instrument I came across in thrift stores and antique stores, regardless of the brand or condition before learning my lesson with a bass clarinet, which I might write about later. So it was that one day I came across this old Boosey & Hawkes “The Edgware” clarinet at a local antique store. If you know anything about antique dealers and instruments, you know that often their prices are quite high on instruments that are in unknown conditions, both of which were true with this instrument. It was marked at $90, but a quick internet search sometime later revealed that the horn was really only worth about $30-$40 in its condition if that. And believe me, this thing was in a condition. It was unplayable as it came to me, it was absolutely covered in dust and grime, needed all new pads, two new springs and all new tenon corks. After getting it fixed up  and playing it, here are my thoughts.

General Information: This is a Boosey and Hawkes “The Edgware” clarinet manufactured sometime between the 1940s-1960s if internet research is to be believed. This is a hard rubber clarinet as far as I can tell and I do not think that B&H still makes clarinets or instruments at all for that matter.

Playability and Tuning: Having never owned a B&H instrument of any kind I wasn’t sure what to expect, and some conversations on online forums did not give me any additional confidence. However, I was presently surprised by the responsiveness of the instrument, and there were no stuffy notes to speak of when I played it with my Vandoren BD5 13 mouthpiece. The sound was pretty centered and I found it to be a lot more centered than my other plastic resin instruments with very little spread if any in the low register. That being said though, I found getting an edge and projection to be a challenge with this horn, as it sort of liked to get a centered sound and then just kind of stay there. Tuning was pretty decent overall, with the biggest problems being some sharp throat tones and a strangely flat clarion F#, but otherwise nothing that bothered my ear or my tuner too much. Altissimo was a strangely good experience with this clarinet, as it was incredibly responsive and really projected well. I was not expecting this at all, especially given how the lower end of the horn sounded and felt. All and all, the clarinet itself is not too bad, perfectly usable and much better than I was expecting. That being said, the stock Boosey and Hawkes branded mouthpiece that came with this clarinet is probably the worst thing I have ever played in my life even when compared to other stock and cheap mouthpieces. I could hardly make a sound on this thing, and when I did the sound was thin, airy and quite disgusting, and you could forget about tuning with it. Maybe this mouthpiece is why these horns get such a bad wrap?

Construction and Build Quality: The body looks and feels of good quality with no obvious signs of poor craftsmanship, and because of its hard rubber body construction this clarinet is rather light which makes it easier on your right thumb. Aesthetically, the horn is nice to look at thought it has a strange brownish grey color to it rather than the typical black or wood grain seen on other instruments of other materials. The bell is oddly proportioned though and does not flare out as much as I would normally expect, but that is not really a problem and doesn’t seem to effect playability. The nickel plated keywork on the other hand is not great, as I think it feels kind of loose and the action just kind of gets the job done. There is hardly any spring at all in the left hand pinkie keys, and they kind of just move into and out of place. Definitely not a satisfying keywork experience on this horn, and I think another good word for this would be soft or even spongy as the metal does bend easily. It really doesn’t feel durable either, and I feel that I (or an unsuspecting young player) could probably snap parts of it off or bend it with little effort.

Case: I did not receive the original case with this horn, and the case that came with it was destroyed so there is really no point in reviewing that.

Conclusion: The B&H Edgware clarinet is a solid student horn which would be fine for a beginner or casual player, or perhaps the casual hobbyist. It plays very well given what it is, and has a very centered sound and transitions between the ranges are very good. Like I said before, altissimo is great on this thing and transitioning up to it is simple and clean, maybe even the best in my collection in that regard. Overall, I like the way it plays and sounds, but it feels kind of cheap in terms of keywork which I hate to say given how it plays. Looking back, was buying this horn a smart decision? No, probably not from an investment standpoint, but it was fun to fix up and I do enjoy playing on it. It is also the only hard rubber clarinet I own, so that makes it pretty unique in my collection.

These clarinets aren’t worth much these days and are quite elusive, so I will likely keep it and continue to play it, as I would most certainly loose money if I tried to sell it anywhere near the purchase price. It really would not be bad for a student to start on though, especially if you get one in good shape for a decent price. I probably would not pay more than like $70 for one though, as you could put a little more with it and get a Bundy or Vito that would be a lot more value for the money with better quality keywork and a more manipulable sound. Finding a cheap one may be a challenge though, as people at antique dealers and on eBay are so quick to slap a hefty price tag on just about any old horn they have not seen before, claiming it is a “RARE valuable antique!”