Backun Essence Clarinet – Grenadilla

Optional Features
The following is a list of the various options available on the Backun Essence Clarinet.

Grenadilla or Cocobolo Wood
This is the biggest for most players. Cocobolo is lovely and has a quicker response than Grenadilla wood. Grenadilla is a more focused sound and Cocobolo is a more broad and open sound. However, Cocobolo is also a more porous grain structure so there is more surface area for your moisture to interact with. While both woods are able to crack, this does mean that Cocobolo is more crack sensitive. For that reason, should you go with Cocobolo, we highly recommend the next option…

Bore Liner Option
We are huge proponents of anything that can prevent the destructive reality of cracks in a clarinet. Even though we are an expert crack repair shop, we do not want to have to repair a crack, especially when so many are preventable. The bore liner used by Backun is an partial liner in the upper joint. This means only the top portion of the upper joint, not the whole joint, has the liner installed before boring / tonehole cutting. This way the liner is integrated into the acoustic bore and provides stability to prevent cracks in the area where 95% of cracks occur – the top of the upper joint. This technique has been used by oboe manufacturers with great success for years, and we are finally seeing it make its way into the clarinet market.

Tone Hole Inserts in Upper Joint
Regardless of whether you get the lined model or not, ALL Essence clarinets will have a truly unique tonehole insert in the upper joints made from hard rubber (the same used on the Backun Signature Series mouthpieces). These inserts give enhanced crack prevention even on the non-lined models as a crack cannot go “through” a tonehole (which is the more costly part of crack repair). This also gives a perfectly machined pad surface for superior pad seal and regulation, as their is no wood grain on the tonehole surface.

Low F Vent
This is a great mechanism that Backun pioneered in their custom clarinets. By tying this keywork to your register key, it automatically opens or closes the F vent for you to improve the intonation of that problematic note. Many manufacturers opt for an additional key to accomplish this in a more simplistic method, but that means that the player has to use an alternate fingering – ever try teaching an old dog a new trick? Whether you are “old” or not, learning to play with a different fingering often slips the mind when in the middle of performance. The automatic low F vent is smooth and elegant giving you the ability to just play! We recommend the vent to customers, and outside of the “base” configuration, we will only stock models with it.

Gold Posts
No, this does not impact performance – but it sure is pretty! So other than the base configuration, we tend to stock the more elaborately configured models with all the bells and whistles. Of course, we can order the Backun Essence without the gold posts for you if you choose.