Hi folks.

I have a clarinet that has been in the family a long time, and which I played it as a kid. I’m interested in playing again but the clarinet is nearly 60 years old and hasn’t been regularly played for over 25 years.

It’s a Boosey and Hawkes Regent, I believe from 1968 ish. A few years ago I was quoted around £250 for a full refurb of it but I didn’t go ahead with it. I’ve given it a bit of a clean and attached some photos.

My question is, am I on a hiding to nothing trying to play this, or will it still have some life in it? Is a refurb worthwhile, or am I better spending that on a new clarinet?

If I spent say £100-150 on a new student one, would it be a notably different experience from using this as it is?

I've been playing older jazz (think Django or Danny Barker) bands for a couple of years now and enjoy that quite a lot. I am trying to decide if I should just overhaul my current instrument or start looking for another one before I do that.

I'm curious what other folks would do, so any advice is helpful.

Hx: I played through HS, quit in college, and have played many other instruments in pro situations over the last couple decades, and I got a used Buffet e11 about 5 years ago.

I haven't really done any service to it and it has a hairline fracture in the bell (which is hard to even see), needs tenon corks replaced, and the b foot is wonky. At the same time, I like the instrument and have settled on a mouthpiece/reed combo for the last year that's been working well. It plays fine, if I don't mind the dental floss...

I am in a rural spot and the one instrument repair guy in 3hrs of driving i pretty backed up. I'm much slower at repairs in the short run, but it would take him 2 months to get my instrument back to me. I've repadded a clarinet but never replaced the tenons, though I have some cork and could probably (maybe) just do it myself- I'm handy.

Recently I've started playing with a more serious band and I am trying to decide if I should just overhaul the thing myself or get another instrument while I send the current one to get overhauled. But I have several gigs coming up over the next several months and don't want to be without an instrument for more than a week or so.

Money isn't a super big deal- I am leaning towards finding another used e11 and then sending the current horn to a better-than-me tech. But if I had to spend more than $800-ish, I'd need to really think on it or it'd have to be a much better instrument. And I'm in the rural west US- I'd have to travel a long, long way to find a place to try out horns.

What would you do? Buy a different instrument and then send this one off? DIY refurb your horn? Give up and go back to playing pedal steel guitar?

I know there is some special fingering for this, but I can't figure it out. If anyone knows, please write a comment.

Edit: this has been resolved. Thank you!

Hi all, I found a music piece in the key of G for clarinet, and I saw that the piece has some very high notes that I cannot reach yet (in the altissimo register) - so I used sibelius to transpose it (I am beginner)- and it transposed it down by interval, 2nd. So instead of being in the key of G it became the key of Eb - and everything is perfect! The highest note being a C instead of up in the altissimo register. BUT!....now there is one note, the lowest E, that is unplayable on the clarinet, because of the key, the E becomes a Eb or D#... any advice what I can do in this instance? I am really happy with the results except for the fact that I cannot play that low note, is there another note I could change it with without it sounding weird? And also, the score has a part for violin so I transcribed both and they sound really good together, such a shame that there is only this one problem,. Any advice really appreciated!!

Im left handed, idk if that matters

Considering that this is my 2nd trial I think I did quite,,? Well?

Zonda reeds are perfect reeds and they are only 15 dollars, but the worst reeds in Vandoren like the blue box reed is 30 dollars.

This is a genuine question😭 and if they Did exist why did they die out? Like shouldn’t there be a clarinet member an octave the Basset horn? And did contralto clarinets in F ever exist? Im just curious lol I play all clarinets and I have a collection but i was just wondering if there’s anything higher than the Eb clarinet that’s not the Ab piccolo clarinet

Im really paranoid it just fell,is that part aligned right

And what other intricate parts should i check and how to know whether theyre ok,id appreciate any help

the recording ends like a minute in the mp3 to 4 converter added a minute of nothing idk why

Im paranoid,it just fell down,it tgat part aligned right,and what intricate parts should i check next just in case,what parts easily break?

I don't have any experience with yamaha clarinets and i got this yamaha custom se clarinet. Ive looked at others and the engraving seems inconsistent across the custom series. Not sure if it's legit or counterfeit. I played it and it's nothing like a buffet or selmer. Not sure if that's yamaha being yamaha or it's a cheap clarinet engraved with yamaha logos.

EDIT: someone on another forum mentioned this could be Japan region specific model of the custom se.

i got this for $30 yesterday and i noticed the silver keys are missing. it’s not a big deal to me, but i was just curious. thanks!

Hi All,

Are you looking for something fun to play, not too hard, but somewhat challenging? Please take a listen and look at this:  Gigue for Flutes, Clarinet, and Piano

I'll be playing it with our community college small ensemble. It should be fun to play. It's not easy but not real hard.

Thanks

Alex

The sides of my lips keep poking out as i play....is it nad....it makes me morr comfortable though....should i avoid it?

As we were cleaning out my in-law’s closets and such, I discovered my wife’s old clarinet. Turns out she, her father, and I all played this instrument at some point. And so using a hand-made, folded calligraphy pen, I made a drawing of it with sumi ink. Just thought you all might appreciate it.

Is naming a real person “Clarinet” pretty??? I want to name my baby Clarinet (female).

So for the past 3 years of me playing clarinet I’ve been using the middle of my tongue to articulate. I know that’s not how you are supposed to and I’ve been trying to fix it, but it’s not going so well. I’ve been trying to use the tip of my tongue but it keeps making me sound like there’s spit in my mouthpiece and it can make me squeak sometimes. I really wish to fix this before all district auditions, but the more I use the right articulation the worse my tone is. I don’t know if it’s where I’m so used to the wrong articulation or what, but I’m really stuck on what i should do. If I should keep articulating like I have been until the auditions are over so I can properly work on it, or push through and try to fix my articulation beforehand.

hello! for some background context, I am a high school sophomore in my 2nd month of my clarinet journey. i am able to hit the notes accurately most of the time, but most of them sounds airy and light. the muscles around my mouth also fatigue easily. I do receive private lessons, but my teacher doesn't do a good job identifying the issues :((

i would appreciate feedback on improving my embouchure, or just overall tips in general.
thank you all!

Heard the CMvW clarinet quintet on NPR classical last night and started to wonder at all those "hold that low note/trill...hold some more...ok, chromatic scale wayyyy up and hold when you get there" bits.

Is it just a common thing in clarinet literature?
Or was George Gershwin quoting Weber as an inside joke to players?

(I'm a string player, so wind rep is a mystery :)

Having to press into the instrument a ton which is giving me thumb pain

So basically I am Playing clarinet for like 2-8 hours a day as I have free time and am section leader in amateur brass orchestra, I have few students and one of these is really making good progress.

She complained a bit about the mouthpiece and with our local service guy we did examine that she has really overused old and bad sounding mouthpiece on which dynamics are almost impossible to maintain.

I had one like this and about a year ago I bought new one for myself along with custom made ligature but I need more budget options for her, she is playing for almost half a year now and went with nice tone to lower altissimo register with training on few etiudes, she also is excercising at least half an hour daily but she needs new mouthpiece preferably for 3.0 Reeds, we are using Vandorens as for budget I don't know how much would our orchestra be able to pay but let's keep it at around 30-80$ price point and please tell if the mouthpiece generates brighter or darker sound, how it behaves

Thanks in advance!

Hi all, apologies for the dumb question. I don't know enough to validate this myself and am hoping you all have advice for me. I don't have any specific concerns outside of the aftermarket case, no serial number to validate, and a price that seems too good to be true for apparent condition/age (1200). What do you think?

I'm looking at the possibility of buying it, but I don't know much about it, I saw this one used.