Opus USA

Thanks to Jae Kim for letting me review his new Opus USA! He sent it with other clarinets he wanted me to recondition, and I am sure that those will play better in tune than this one.

It offends me that the Chinese maker puts ‘USA’ in the name.

I reviewed an Opus USA Soprano sax. And I even bought my second one. On the first one, my wife never complained about how it sounded. For some reason, she can’t stand the second one! I have taken them both to Indonesia where no one seems to mind the intonation, or, they are too polite to say if they do.

Serial #none

Barrel: 61.9mm

Bore LH joint top: 14.8mm

Bore LH joint at bottom: 14.8mm

Intonation results taken when playing loud and not lipping. See how to interpret these results on the Model Comparison Page.

For this test, I pulled 0 at the barrel and 1.3mm at the center tenon.

Intonation summary: I really hoped that this would be better! Disappointed again. Dreadful intonation. This intonation will work for as much as the first year of a school program. The clarinet section is going to be hideously out of tune anyway at that level! Even for beginning intonation, this is not good. Tone holes for the RH ring keys have been undercut just a little, and there was some manual adjusting of the LH ring finger hole. The intonation faults cannot be fixed with simple undercutting of tone holes on this clarinet.

Included mouthpiece: I can hardly play on the bundled no-name plastic mouthpiece when using my same reed. It seems to be quite open. The intonation tests were made using my default mouthpiece and reed. (See the model comparison page.)

Key work quality: Fabulous! That is what makes it such a shame that the intonation is not better. I like the adjustable thumb rest.

This clarinet is most appropriate for: first year beginners only.

Condition issues noted: The lower section does not seal as well as I would like.

Report abuse