What grade are you just now? My clarinet teacher told me taht i should really get one jsut now but i think ti depends on your standard of playing and how long you ahve been playing, what grade are youa t at the moment? im on 6/7 my teacher estimates so i think im overdue a new clarinet! mine is kind of falling apart!
maki x

I presume you've got a plastic clarinet maki.

I think you should certainly consider buying a wooden instrument at your level. Buffet and Yamaha wooden clarinets are good instruments to consider, there are other good wooden instruments too.

When you buy your new wooden instrument, I'd recommend trying out a few at a good music shop, to see which one you like the best.

Well my post above was posted over a year ago when I was about Grade 3, I'm now about Grade 6 and I got a new clarinet for Christmas; a buffet C12, it's lovely with a Vandoren B40 Lyre and a Rovner Mark III ligature...it did wonders for my tone

Hulk

It doesn't mind wether you've got wooden or plastic ones, I've got a Yamaha YCL-C100, which I use for a year *well last year*, and my teacher told me that it is o.k and can be used till grade 8. Though I just bought a Yamaha YCL-650 *wooden pro*, I love playing neither of them, it's base to your skills. Prctise basic more and more to get better.

worked for me too!!! Mum just got me two new Buffet R13 clarinets- Bb and A. I might do music as my career so mum spend almost 10.000 NZ dollars my new clarinet. You're so lucky that you don't live in New Zealand, I can't even found a good Buffet R13 clarinet. The music store only has 1 and it's not a very good R 13 so my teacher's friend from Chicago got me two R13 from the Buffet factory in Paris!!!!! I'm so excited, the clarinets gonna be here in 5 days.

Anyway back to the wooden clarinet question. I did my grade 7 clarinet on my Buffet B12 and i think it's alright. It's not an amazing instrument but I'm sure it's good enough for grade 5. BUT a wooden clarient will always sound better than an plastic one and if you're prepared to spend lots of money than you might want to get a wooden clarinet .

Good luck with your decision.

Lots of good stuff here. I got my first wooden clarinet (second hand Buffet E13) around the time I did Grade 6, and my second one (a new Buffet R13) a few years later, for the second year of university. I will just add here that wooden ones can be a lot heavier than plastic ones, so although they sound nice, I don't recommend them to children of, say, primary school age. I teach a girl who is 13 and small for her age (just done grade 5) and she is now looking to buy one. I think the time is right for her, but she was slightly put off by the weight of mine and may leave it a few months. Her parents need to save up anyway - they aren't cheap!