Buffet Prodige Bb Clarinet Outfit

What they say

Buffet Crampon has revolutionized the student clarinet! Now, beginners on a budget can start out with a professional sound. Essential qualities of the Prodige clarinet are tone, ergonomics and reliability. For the first time in this range, the required operations for creating perfect acoustics, especially the molding and drilling of the bore, are performed entirely in France and Germany to ensure a consistent result.

Prodige’s new bore, inspired by the renowned E13 model, allows an unprecedented ease of play and projection of sound. The intervals between notes are pitch-perfect and balanced. Its bell has also been entirely reworked in order to optimize projection. Our innovation: a textured bore. It is now possible for a young musician to learn to play on a professional-sounding clarinet at a reasonable price.

What We Say

It's sometimes sad to say goodbye to an old friend, and the Buffet B12 was with us a long time and started a lot of clarinet players on their journey. The fact there are still 20 year old B12s in great working order is testament to the build quality of the model. Never fear, because the Prodige is more than capable of stepping into those shoes!

Whilst the B12 was a German made instrument, the Prodige is a more multinational affair - the body sections are moulded in France from a new propriatory design based on the E13 model, then they're shipped to Germany where the holes are bored using the old B12 process. After that, the bodies are shipped to China where the key mechanisms are installed. Rather than outsourcing their Chinese manufacturing to another company, Buffet invested in their own manufacturing facility in China that they could tool and setup, and ensure that the technicians are fully trained in the Buffet methodology of manufacturing. The idea is to keep the cost to the customer as low as possible but maintain tight quality control over the various stages of production, ensuring that this is an instrument that sounds and performs at its absolute best. 

The Prodige is not the cheapest student clarinet on the market but its rich tone and easy blowing make it a far better starting point than many other cheaper plastic clarinets - it will also last a long time and retain value better. There's a good reason Buffet have continued to dominate the market for such a long time against the onslaught of Far East made instruments, and this really is a lovely instrument.

Specs

Key: Bb

Body material: Co-polymeric ABS resin with poly-cylindrical bore

Barrel length: 64mm

Key mechanism: Silver-plated nickel silver Boehm system - 17 keys

Tone holes: Undercut

Thumb rest: Adjustable

Other: Blue steel springs, leather pads

Mouthpiece: Urban Play mouthpiece, ligature and cap

Accessories: Backpack style case, reed, cork grease, pull through and polishing cloth