I've recently been searching for a new clarinet for one of my adult pupils and ended up going through the Old/Versus new discussion with myself in the process, I was wondering if others feel the same as I do?

My pupil had been using a plastic B&H regent? (I forget which is plastic and which is wood, regent/emperor/imperial etc!) perfectly fine for a beginner clarinet, slight problem with the B/E LH spatula keys warping out of shape but no major problems. My pupil is a lovely retired lady, absolute joy to teach and she desperately wanted to upgrade wooden clarinet but was fairly insistent that she would rather it was brand new, something which she felt was important to her which I understand.

I was really lucky during University to be taught by a guy whose main job was dealing in rare clarinets and repairing them. He explained a lot to me about why you should go for old/vintage where possible. Mainly because these days the wood used in new clarinets is not dried out for long enough prior to manufacture. I can't quite remember the exact timing but I think he suggested that the YCL450 (which I had for some time) uses wood which is only dried out for 5 years, whereas years ago the wood was usually dried out for a minimum of 15 years and that this reduces the possibility of cracks forming in later years.
I now have a beautiful Selmer 10S and a pair of Selmer 9's both of which are about 1960s/70s age, while not being the shiniest, prettiest clarinets in the world, they have SO much character (especially the 10S) and have been beautifully made.

Anyway before I bore you all by rabbiting on about old clarinets... My pupil decided that she wanted to try some English made clarinets (I won't say which brand here but needless to say our budget didn't quite stretch to Peter Eatons...) the company were very good and sent us 3 of their clarinets to try, one "professional", one wood/ebonite mix and one rosewood. Having been impressed by the high standard of customer service and knowing that this was a small family company I expected to be really impressed by the workmanship. However, we ended up having to send all three clarinets back, why? Because the quality for the price was so poor. The rosewood clarinet had major cracks already forming in the lower joint, one clarinet's tenon rings promptly fell off as soon as we got it out of the box and the other had some problems with the pads leaking.

I eventually sent my Pupil to my old teacher who let her try out several clarinets 1960s R13, older E11 etc and she's now very happy with a lovely old Buffet BC which had been hardly played and therefore was even shiny just like a new clarinet! Interestingly enough, the clarinet she bought was half the price of the English company's clarinets, had they been at that price we might have considered them but I'm just glad she's found something she is comfortable with.

*Just to say before anyone shoots me down in flames, my Baritone sax comes from the same English company as mentioned earlier and is as good, if not better as other saxes that are ?2-3K more expensive. I have no problem with the company, just illustrating that buying new is not always buying best.*

When I upgraded my clarinet I came away with a used one.
I'd tried several and also tested it against a new one of the same make and model.
The used had a much better sound and for me was the better choice.

Do let me know if there are any reasonably priced A instruments in his workshop...

Assuming I have correctly deduced who you're talking about.. I was interested to read this because your comments are very similar to some made by the technician/repairer who looks after my daughter's clarinets. Having worked on both the clarinets and the saxophones from this company, she commented that she liked the saxophones but was unimpressed with the "engineering" of the clarinets.

We own three second hand clarinets. I was going to say that none is quite so old as you are thinking of, but actually daughter's bass (which cost us ?500!) is of uncertain antiquity (post-war) but after an overhaul looks and sounds beautiful. However, someone did tell me that old clarinets have a tendency to play very sharp. True?

I don't think you can make that generalisation.

I've been told that the quality of the wood in older clarinets was better , I don't know how true that is but I don't ever remember anybody I knew ever having problems with clarinets cracking when I was first learning back in the 1970's . Most people back then seemed to have Boosey and Hawkes clarinets and Buffets were just starting to come in.

Dulcet he probably does have a few - It's Alex Allen at Clarinetsdirect.biz he restores absolutely loads every month, lovely guy and a very honest dealer.

Halka - really interested to read your post, especially as it seems several people have a similar opinion. Some clarinets were designed to play at the 442Hz tuning instead of the conventional 440Hz but I think it's normally the simple/german system claris not your usual Boosey & Hawkes/ vintage Selmers etc.