Buffet Tradition Bb Clarinet

Released in 2017, the Tradition represents Buffet asking themselves: "What if we scrapped the R13's polycylindrical bore and started over?" Bizarre idea, but hey, I seriously love that Buffet questions their own successes. So, the Tradition's bore is cylindrical — constant diameter throughout — which is how the instrument puts the R13 philosophy into reverse. But wait. If Robert Carrée invented the polycylindrical bore specifically to fix the intonation problems of straight-bore clarinets, why the hell go back? Well, here's my best guess: up until the 1980s Buffet made a model (only available in Europe) called the BC20, which developed a quiet following among players who found it warmer and more balanced than the R13. Buffet decided to solve the "cylindrical problem" a different way: keep the cylindrical bore concept but attach tone hole geometry from the Tosca. Old-school bore, modern intonation work. And I think it was successful. The dashboard data kind of proves it out. The Tradition lands in the "darker-than-average" category — darker than about 63% of the clarinets I've tested. But the real test is whether those Tosca tone holes actually fixed the intonation problems that plagued historical cylindrical bores. The twelfths tell the story: nearly 80% of the intervals fall within ±10 cents, and that's tight. The throat tones are the clearest win. Throat Bb comes in at -4¢, throat B at -7¢ — remarkably centered for any clarinet, let alone a cylindrical bore. (Most R13s I've tested run -10 to -15¢ there.) In 2019, Buffet released a second generation with metal-lined tenons and a Low F correction key borrowed from the Légende. The Légende builds on the Tradition's platform at a higher price point, but this clarinet is where the concept originated. Resistance: 7/10, Medium-Heavy To me, the Tradition feels more resistant than the R13/Festival family but a touch less than the Légende. There’s a firmness to the blow—think of it like the difference between pushing open a screen door and a solid oak one. That resistance gives you a focused, stable sound and keeps your tone from “spreading” at high volumes. The tradeoff is you won’t get quite as much flexibility in tonal shading without working for it. In general, more resistance in a clarinet design usually keeps the louder dynamic ranges from spreading; the clarinet holds its core and focus, but will provide a smaller dynamic range (on both ends, loud and soft) and smaller color palette. A less resistant clarinet typically provides a much wider tonal palette to choose from, but will require more control from the player to control pitch and sound consistency. When listening for how a clarinet responds to added air pressure and embouchure control, listen to the Weber example (wide dynamic range and color range), then the Berlioz excerpt (wide dynamic range, but narrow color range), and finally the Gershwin excerpt (narrow dynamic range and narrow color range). You will hear how these clarinets respond—for better or worse!—to my input as a clarinet player.