Barre / Jean Barre
Thanks to Jeanette Collins for letting me review this plastic Jean Barre.
Some of the wooden Jean Barre clarinets are very good, so I was very interested to see this. Unfortunately, this plastic Jean Barre doesn't come up to the level of the best wooden instruments in intonation.
Serial #E6554 or it could be E6334. This has a batch mark of 2 over V. Ah, Mr. Victoire, we meet again!
Barrel: 63.7mm
Bore LH joint top: 14.6mm
Bore LH joint at bottom: 14.8mm This seems to be wrong-way poly-cylindrical!
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 1.6mm at the barrel and 1.2mm at the center tenon. And I am using my Prime mouthpiece, not the Barre mouthpiece.
Intonation summary: Good intermediate intonation. The main terrible fault is the low Bb to G.
Key work quality: Excellent. This has those lovely, comfortable, wide rings that are typical for this maker.
This clarinet is most appropriate for: Beginning players. This is plastic and not hard rubber. The plastic is of the older Bundy era type, so a bit hollow sounding.
Condition issues noted: none