Very Early Buffet Crampon R13 Clarinet!
The earliest Buffet Crampon R13 clarinet we are offering for sale! This is s/n 554XX, roughly 1955, making it one of the earliest true R13's ever made. It is in very good condition: grenadilla body has no chips, cracks or repairs. Nickel-silver keys don't polish up quite a shiny as silver plate, but also don't wear, and as you can see they look pretty good! Appears to have been overhauled not long ago mostly in long-lasting synthetic pads, very likely Valentino. Just further through our shop where it needed very little other than some bore oil and a new center tenon cork. Plays with a big, open, dark tone compared to some of our later R13's. It came to us without a barrel, but the included, hard-to-find Muncy 66 B barrel adds a crystal-clear, ringing quality to the tone, and the Moennig-style reversed taper evens up the intonation across the entire horn quite nicely. (These usually sell for about $250 all by themselves if you can even find them.) Cork grease and key oil are for local pickup only and will not be shipped, but it does include a new ProTec microfiber cloth, new SuperSlick chamois swab, and a vintage pochette-style Buffet case which is also in very good condition. A great clarinet in great condition with a great barrel, and still about $2,000 less than brand new!