<p>musicprnt:</p>
<p>Although I’d love to agree with you, I have to beg to differ in that there are GROSS differences in Buffet clarinets. One day my D tried 10 R-13s at WWBW and they varied from horrid to good and that was both by ear and on a tuner. She then tried 3 Prestiges and they varied from good to excellent. Unfortunately, the original mission was for a new R-13, but the eventual purchase was the Prestige which hurt the wallet…</p>
<p>Bottom line is that there probably isn’t a single instrumenet on the planet that you can buy without trying out unless you’re incredibly lucky. Kind of like the Harry Potter line, “The wand picks the wizard.”</p>