CLARINETS DIRECT

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BUFFET E13, EVETTE & SCHAEFFER, Bb CLARINET, £945

An extremely fine Evette & Schaeffer, E13 clarinet in Nickel Silver plate. The matching serial numbers are K60059 which dates to 1982, making this one of the last of the E&S manufactured prior to the Boosey and Hawkes take over of Buffet. This E&S Bb is much superior, in every respect; quality of wood, intonation, plating, and tone, to contemporary mass produced E13 Buffet clarinets. When this model was produced it was second only to the RC and R13 profesional models in quality, and it was manufactured alongside them at the Buffet factory. This model was made from unstained wood, and hand finished, the new asking price then was 76% of the cost of a new R13. It is interesting to note the Buffet tacitly admit the current fall in quality: the contemporary asking price for an E13 is only 59% that of a new R13.
There is no damage to the wood, which is crack and repair free. The plating overall is pristine.  The instrument has just had a complete re-pad in Pisoni deluxe fish skin pads in our workshop and is sold with our full 1 year warranty. The m'piece is an up-grade to a Vandoren 5RV, which is in fine used condition. The case is the original which comes with the keys. Current E13s are being treated by Buffet with a chemical compound, which is supposed to inhibit cracking. In fact this seems to be causing some joint problems for Buffet, with many new instrument owners reporting problems with sticking joints to dealers, due to this compound leaching out from the wood end grain. At the period this instruments was made, thankfully the Grenadilla wood was left to age naturally prior to manufacture.