2020 Buffet Crampon R13 Professional Wood Clarinet Review
Reviewed in 2023 by Jared Burchfield
Introduction: Up until I bought this clarinet, I had been using a plastic Yamaha YCL-255 for most of my clarinet work. I was told by a former clarinet teacher whom I no longer study with that I had to upgrade as soon as possible and was recommended that I buy specifically a new Buffet Crampon R13. Feeling as though I had no other options, I limited myself to Buffet and bought the first new R13 I could find. Since this happened right on the brink of COVID, I opted to buy this horn from the open box section of then popular online band instrument retailer Woodwind and Brasswind where it was listed as new with an open package for somewhere around $3300, which was a little bit cheaper than the regular listing price of around $4000 at the time. It came to me in the original packaging with all of the factory accessories which included a new unbranded reed with no indicated strength, a nickel plated ligature and mouthpiece cap, a cleaning cloth, a really cool Buffet pencil, and some cork grease.
General Info: This instrument is sold as a professional model clarinet with a grenadilla blackwood body and nickel plated keys which was manufactured in 2020 by Buffet Crampon. The R13 is still manufactured and sold by Buffet Crampon as their flagship model professional clarinet.
Playability and Tuning: Upon playing this horn for the first time, I found that it had a very warm and centered sound. I also found that it played about 10 cents flat, but I wasn’t worried as I knew the wood would need to warm up. After about 45 minutes of playing however, this instrument was still flat in all registers, in spite of the fact that I was in a room with normal temperatures and climate control. I would later learn that this horn was significantly flat no matter where I played it or how long I warmed up for some unknown reason that I still can’t quite figure out. As I played it more over the next few weeks, I found that the intonation also wasn’t consistent across all registers or even between individual notes. Going across the break was not great either, as the throat tones were about 10 cents flat and the lower clarion was a little bit sharp. In addition to this, there were so many stuffy notes that just didn’t speak well all over the instrument. The low C# and pretty much all of the throat tones were the worst offenders. This is the first and only clarinet I have ever played where the throat tones were too flat rather then too sharp. The throat Bb on this horn was probably the worst I have ever heard for tone and pitch, even when compared to some cheap off brand clarinets. My colleagues were shocked to hear of my bad experiences with this horn and some suggested that I try some different mouthpieces and different length barrels, but none of this did any good and sometimes these even caused new issues. I tried my BD5, a D’Adarrio Reserve Evolution, and a B45 among others but yet the clarinet stubbornly remained flat. The clarinet was also very inconsistent as I never knew how the horn was going to play, and that varied greatly from day to day. I understand that all wood horns change with the outdoor temperature, but this was a little more then what was typical of wooden clarinets I have owned since. Sometimes it would play almost tolerably, and other times it was so out of tune and stuffy that I couldn’t even give an in tune concert A. It was so bad that I went back to my student Yamaha YCL-255 which had none of these issues, and used that for the remainder of the school year and all of our concerts. I never would have expected a $4000 professional horn that is supposed to be the golden standard of clarinet to get outplayed by a plastic Yamaha.
Construction and Build Quality: At first I was so excited by this horn and the reputation of the R13 that I didn’t even question the quality of it. As I played it more and compared it to my other horns though, I noticed quite a few significant issues. First off, I discovered that apparently this horn was cracked in two places from the factory and was missing a chunk of wood from the bell around the ring which you can see in the first photo of the bell. The two cracks which are not pictured were in the bell tenon and the lower joint tenon. Thankfully they didn’t appear to worsen while I had it, but it was just unbelievable that this horn arrived in this condition. But then there were the awful tenons themselves. From the day I got this clarinet, it was incredibly hard to put together. I wasn’t worried though and started applying cork grease thinking it was just new and would get better, but it didn’t. The barrel routinely got stuck on the clarinet, often so tightly that I had to take it to my teacher to get it removed so that I didn’t damage anything by forcing it off, but this was in vain it would just stick again the next time I played. I even tried sanding down the corks thinking they might be too thick, but this too did nothing. The horn continued to stick together at both the barrel and the bell regardless, and I concluded that the tenons were just manufactured incorrectly which again is unacceptable for an instrument at this level and price point. I also found it odd that this R13 also didn’t have metal tenon caps on any of the tenons which is something that many professional horns and even my intermediate Selmer USA Signet Soloist has on all of its tenons. Other or higher end R13s may have them, but for some reason this one did not. Not really a problem per say as many wood clarinets exist without them, but often this is more common on cheaper and older wooden clarinets and I would have expected tenon caps to be present on an instrument at this price point.
The keywork felt ok and was positioned well and truly that is about the only good thing I have to say about this horn besides the nice looking gold finish on the logos I guess? I am trying so hard to say something good about this horn. Back to keywork though, the fact that they used cheap nylon or plastic adjustment screws on it was kind of disappointing to me as most other horns of both student and professional levels I have owned have metal ones. I also disliked the plastic or nylon nubs used on the left pinkie keys, which while I guess they make the keys quieter they also have a reputation for breaking or falling out over time, rendering those keys completely useless until a replacement is ordered. It frustrates me that Buffet chose to do this as it almost seems like this nylon or plastic like material in the place of what would be a one piece metal extension of the key was a cost cutting measure. This nylon part thing is probably one of my biggest annoyances with both this R13 and just the R13 in general. If I am paying over $3000 for a clarinet I expect quality metal parts, not nylon that wears out and breaks off after years of use. In addition to all of that, the nickel plating on this particular instrument is quite honestly also junk. I am always careful to clean and wipe off my horns after I play, yet after about 3 months of playing the nickel plating on this new professional level instrument was wearing off the keys which you can see in the third photo on the upper joint. I have never seen nickel wear so fast, even on 50 year old student horns that have been marched for their whole existence. Also, the ligature that this horn came with was absolutely useless. The screws jammed constantly and the whole thing slipped if you tired to use it. The mouthpiece cap didn’t even fit around the ligature, and the plating on both of these items began coming off after a couple of months too.
Case: The case that came with this horn was also pretty unacceptable, especially for this price point. The case was cheaply made and the outer leather looking material was pealing off after a couple of months of normal use. The cheap plastic locks didn’t even lock and just spun around when you tried to turn them with the nearly weightless included keys, and the inside fabric around the case felt thin and cheap. The biggest problem I had with the case is that the horn moved around significantly while inside the case, especially the upper joint and you can see the gap below the upper joint in the photos. The upper joint was significantly of its place every time I opened the case, and the lower joint had about an inch that it could slide back in forth in. I could even hear the instrument moving around in the case when I was carrying it. The whole point of a case is to keep the instrument still during transport to minimize damage and adjustment issues, and this one certainly didn’t do that. I would have hoped that such a long time manufacturer of instruments such as Buffet could at least get a case right, but apparently they can’t do that right either. This case really feels like it was made to get the job done with the expectation that it will be upgraded eventually, which again is not acceptable given the price point of this horn, nor does it even get the job done in the first place. See a common theme here?
Conclusion: To be honest, this R13 was a disappointing letdown and certainly didn’t live up to the reputation of the R13 line that I have always heard about from just about every director, private teacher and professional clarinetist out there. The playability and build quality of the horn were very poor, and the case not fitting the instrument was absolutely unacceptable. Now, I understand that most people who buy an R13 also buy a high end case and don’t use the cheap accessories anyway, but then my question to Buffet is why even bother including them? It just makes the instrument feel cheap when the accessories are junk, and what about those who can’t afford a replacement case because they spent all of their money on this very overpriced horn? To be fair, I understand that I didn’t try this horn before I bought it and the smart thing would have been to try several R13s in person and pick one from those, and then have the horn I chose professionally set up. But I also feel that at this price point instruments should be way more consistent. Sure, there will always be minor differences between instruments, but there really shouldn’t be that many horns with issues as severe as this one when you are paying upwards of $3000 for an instrument in my opinion. And that still doesn’t excuse the junk case, junk accessories and the general build quality issues. Like come on, I have since owned wood clarinets from Yamaha, Noblet, and two Selmer USA Signets, and none of them have tuning issues as severe as this R13 had, they have all metal screws and one piece fully metal pinky keys, properly functioning factory cases, and certainly none of them had any issues with tenons, parts getting stuck together, or severe plating wear even after 40+ years of use.
The interesting part about this is that my problems were not an isolated incident. I had a friend in college who tried several new R13s in 2021, and the one she ended up picking also had the tuning and tenon problems, her barrel often got stuck as well, and her case didn’t fit her instrument much like mine. I have also read horror stories online about the build quality issues with new R13s, especially where the quality of the wood is concerned. All of this really makes me question the quality control practices at Buffet, and I am also wondering how in the world this clarinet passed the inspection that Woodwind and Brasswind claimed to give it. All of that to say, I sold this horn in early 2022 and I was not sad to see it go, and thankfully I got my money back out of it. Now am I saying all R13s are bad? No, not at all. What I am saying though is that as someone who didn’t like the older R13s all that much to begin with, believing that they were over-hyped with no projection, a stuffy dull sound, weird key designs and a nasty tendency to always play flat, this experience certainly didn’t change those opinions. If anything, it confirmed what I already thought about R13s, but at the same I can’t help but still be a little surprised that this happened. This lack of attention to detail and poor quality is not what I expected from the “benchmark in clarinet manufacturing.” Now you might have a new R13 and love it, and that is awesome and I say play it and enjoy it. But for me personally, I was not pleased with this new R13 and I would not buy another or recommend them to anyone based on this experience. In conclusion, when purchasing an instrument always try before you buy if you can and don’t be afraid to be picky and get exactly what you want. You are the one spending a lot money after all, and you should get what you want. And to that note, don’t limit yourself to one brand or model of clarinet just because your teacher or band director said you have to. Your teacher can’t control what equipment you use, and if they think they can then you should probably find a different teacher instead of a different clarinet.