I am going to spend a few hours trying out bass clarinets and wondered what others thoughts and preferences are. I play a Selmer Bb but there is about £2000 difference in price between these basses. They both go to low C

Carl - I've been looking for a (cheap!) bass. No experience of them, but Noblets seem to come up on ebay pretty frequently - only down to Eb though.

nick

This is purely my preference, but I've never been much of a fan of Selmer clarinets of any size. Selmer saxophones, different kettle of fish, they're really wonderful, but clarinet wise, I'd go for Buffet, out of these two makes, every time.

But you will find people who will vehemently disagree with me here!

if you can afford both, then do try both as they both gave slightly different fingerings for the lowest notes - i know that some buffets have 3 keys on the back for the thumb, whereas the selmer I play only has 2. If you are going to play this bass alot this may affect your choice.

Both are great instruments, but do experient with those keys.

enjoy

Hmmm tricky one.

A year or so ago I would have said Selmer as personally I thought they were nicer. However, I tried a new Buffet not that long ago and it was absolutely gorgeous!

I don't think you can go far wrong with either.

Personally I purchased the Yamaha to low C. Whilst not as nice as either the Buffet or Selmer it had the advantage that I could afford it! I didn't expect to be doing anywhere near as much bass playing as I have done (I'm an Eb player by preference if doubling) but the Yamaha has been up to all the challenges I've put in it's way. It also has better key spacing for my little hands including a low D key for the thumb.

I've upgraded the mouthpiece to a Weinburg ( ) which had an amazing impact on the projection and helps a lot with the nasty tricky notes on any bass (throat Bb, bottom B, clarion F# and all the notes just above the break).