Overall cosmetic condition is good to excellent, considering they are vintage instruments, but they NEED COMPLETE OVERHAULS (not playable as is). There are some minor cosmetic problems as described below, and there is a mismatched barrel. The pictures provided are of the actual instruments being sold and should be considered as part of the description.

Describing both instruments:

• Body: some light scratches, one deep scratch, wood is dark and lovely, logos slightly worn, no cracks or history of cracks; these two clarinets were loved, and in the hands of the right technician, these clarinets can be completely restored
• Keys: all keys move freely; little to no plating loss
• Tenons: great condition, no chips
• Pads/corks need to be replaced; keys adjusted
• All springs seem to be present
• The A clarinet has a Selmer barrel: contains a deep scratch
• Barrels: no cracks or history of cracks
• Original bells included, no cracks or history of cracks
• No mouthpiece is included
• Wood-shell Buffet Double Case is usable and in good condition for vintage case with some cosmetic flaws, latches work

About these instruments:

For sale, a set of two: a beautiful vintage French-made Buffet professional R13 A wood clarinet and a beautiful vintage French-made Buffet professional Pre-R13 Bb wood clarinet.

On the A R13, both joints are stamped with the same serial number 1312XX, which indicates the year of manufacture to be 1972, placing it within the Buffet “Golden Era”. This model, developed by Robert Carrée in 1955, was the top of the line professional clarinets offered by Buffet Crampon. The serial number of this clarinet falls under the most desirable range of the Golden Era: from 83,000 to 200,000 (1965 to 1979) – the cream of the crop.

The main reason why the “Golden Era” R13 Buffet clarinets are coveted and sought after by the players is the quality of the grenadilla wood of which these instruments were made: the wood was allowed to air dry for 20 years or more to ensure that the clarinet wouldn’t crack and was of the finest grade, very hard, dense and naturally dark. These days, the methods of drying the wood have changed to accommodate the higher volumes of production (kiln-dried) and the wood is used for the current R-13 is less dense and stained black to hide imperfections. Only the top of the line models, such as Prestige, Tosca and Divine currently offer similar quality of wood. Other than the exquisite quality of wood and outstanding craftsmanship, these clarinets are highly coveted by players because of their fantastic intonation and the tone quality.

On the Bb Pre-R13, both joints are stamped with the same serial number, 373XX, which seems to indicate the year of manufacture to be 1949. These so-called ‘pre-R13’ clarinets offerunique advantage to the buyer: a chance of purchasing a fantastic professionalinstrument for the price of the new intermediate clarinet, they are truly ahidden gem.

I would also like to say that I’ve personally repaired many R13’s and Pre-R13’s from this era. If you’re not a trained technician, you might be intimidated by the “first glance” of these instruments, but I have never seen a matched pair of clarinets that are in such good shape. Someone kept these in playing condition for their whole lifetime. I can tell by how well the wood was oiled, and the near-playable condition of the keys. In the hands of the right technician, these two clarinets can be restored to like-new. They were beloved.