2020 Buffet Crampon R13 Professional Wooden Bb 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 with whom I no longer study that I had to upgrade as soon as possible as there was apparently no way I could ever be successful with a student clarinet, or so she claimed. The teacher firmly recommended that I buy specifically a new Buffet Crampon R13. Feeling as though I had no other options, I limited myself to Buffet without doing any research or trying any other instruments, and took out a loan to buy the first new R13 I could find. Since this happened right on the brink of COVID and many businesses had already closed their doors, 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 Buffet branded cork grease.
General Info: Buffet’s website suggests that the Buffet R13 was introduced in 1955, created by Robert Carreé. The R13 is known famously for a claimed phenomenon when describing the instrument’s tone called the “Buffet ring,” which apparently carries through concert halls and allows the instrument to cut through an orchestra. I am not really sure exactly what that means or if other clarinets can achieve this “ring”, but it is a term I hear mentioned among Buffet enthusiasts that the instruments are known for. Regardless of this, the instrument became incredibly popular and is widely considered to be the golden standard of professional clarinets. The specific instrument pictured above was made in 2020, and was marketed as a professional model clarinet with a grenadilla blackwood body and nickel plated keys. This instrument is still in wide production by Buffet Crampon, and many directors, professors, and players of levels consider the R13 to be a “holy grail” of sorts when it comes to professional clarinets.
Playability and Tuning: My expectations were high as I excitedly unboxed the R13 for the first time, and upon playing my first few notes, 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 standard climate control systems. As I played it more in various locations, I would learn that the instrument was significantly flat no matter where I played it, how long I warmed up, or whatever else I did for some unknown reason that I still can’t quite figure out. As I played it more and practiced with a tuner, I also found that the instrument struggled almost comically to play in tune with itself. Intonation 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. 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. In addition to the Bb, there were so many stuffy notes that just didn’t speak well all over the instrument and the whole instrument just felt very dull and stuffy. The low C# and pretty much all of the throat tones were the worst offenders. My colleagues and friends in the clarinet world were shocked to hear of my bad experiences with this horn and some suggested that I try some different mouthpieces and different length barrels. I tried what they suggested, 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 to tune our school’s orchestra. It was so bad that I went back to my student Yamaha YCL-255 which had none of these issues, and I 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: I was so excited by this horn and the reputation of the R13 that I didn’t dare question the quality of it, nor did I feel like I needed to given the price point. As I played it more and compared it to my other horns though, I noticed quite a few significant issues with quality control as well. First off, I discovered that apparently this clarinet 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. To add to this, the tenons themselves were awful. From the day I got the 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 as the corks compressed, but it didn’t. The barrel routinely got stuck on the clarinet, often so tightly that I had to take it to my former teacher to get it removed so that I didn’t damage anything by forcing it off. 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 every time I played regardless, and I concluded that the tenons were just manufactured incorrectly, which again is absolutely unacceptable for an instrument at this level and price point.
The keywork felt good 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 and the cool pencil in the case 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 this clarinet was very 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 case certainly didn’t do either of those things. I would have hoped that such a long time and reputable 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 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 instrument? 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 one I chose professionally set up by a reputable tech. 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 clarinets with issues and variances 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, a vintage Noblet, two vintage Selmer USA Signets, and a 1950s wood Bundy, none of which have tuning issues as severe as this R13 had. They also all have 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 isolated incidents. A colleague of mine 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. Another college of mine more recently had an R13 that cracked shortly after she bought it, only for it to crack again shortly after. 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 to say the least. 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 and somewhat bland sound, weird key designs and a nasty tendency to crack often and always be out of tune, this experience certainly didn’t change those opinions. If anything, it confirmed what I already thought about R13s. In spite of my strong distaste for these instruments, I can’t help but still be surprised that this happened. This lack of attention to detail and poor quality is not what I expected from the “benchmark in clarinet manufacturing.”
You might have a new R13 and love it, and that is awesome and I say play it and enjoy having that signature “Buffet ring” to your sound. After all, some instruments just work better for some people regardless of what brand they are. But for me personally, I was not impressed with this new R13 and I would not buy another or recommend the R13 or any other Buffet clarinet to anyone at any playing level based on this experience. That aside, there are several lessons to be learned here. 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 exactly 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.