Kessler Custom Artist Series Wood Clarinet

Kessler Custom Artist Series Wood Clarinet
Professional Design | Premium Unstained Wood | Professionally Setup

For years worked on providing a wood clarinet that provided the same combination of performance, quality and value found throughout out Kessler Custom line of instruments. We worked with several OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) suppliers trying to find the right design, the right material & the right price so that we could finally make this dream a reality. This process has taken several years and in that time, we had learned many MANY ways on how NOT to make a wood clarinet… but just as the goal seemed to be out of reach, we finally found what we were looking for in our final manufacturing partner.

The result of the years of testing have resulted in our Kessler Custom Artist Series wood clarinet.

• Sound ~ A beautifully rich, resonant tone.
• Intonation ~ In line with professional Buffet clarinets.
• Response ~ Exceptional response throughout all registers. This is due partially to the special barrel & bell bore combination that is designed to increase compression to the air column in the instrument improving the response over the break and in the upper register of the clarinet. When this is combined with the synthetic Master Series pads in the upper joint, the instrument’s response is absolutely sensational!
• Wood ~ Premium unstained wood. The wood is aged for over 3 years and uses special processes to produce a wood that is incredibly stable.
  

  Additional Information

  • Pad Setup
  • Wood vs. Hard Rubber
  • Custom Barrel & Bell
  • Setup
  • Specifications

  Pad Setup
  Do you know how much difference a pad can make? Its huge! Pads can directly affect the response and resonance of your wood clarinet. Pads serve 2 purposes:

  • Seal the tone-hole to prevent air leakage
  • Reflect air and vibration as it leaves the clarinet through the tone-hole

  For these reasons, we go the next step further with our Artist Series wood clarinet and equip them with better pads. In the upper joint, we use a pad know as a Master Series pad made by Valentino. These are a synthetic pad that seals better than a standard pad and gives the tonal reflection of a cork pad. These pads improve resonance, response, articulation and projection. Combined with their extended life as well, and they add so much more value to your wood clarinet!

  In the lower joint, we use a special felt pad that we have blended specific pad thicknesses to further enhance the performance of the clarinet through all registers. Certain pads are thinner in order to limit the acoustic absorption and provide better tonal reflection. This combination was arrived at through painstaking testing to ensure the best combination of performance, reliability & tone color.

  Wood vs. Hard Rubber
  Some vendors of affordable performance clarinets use hard rubber instead of wood for a variety of reasons. They tout the “resonance” and “durability” of it trying to make you believe that hard rubber is actually better than wood… to be blunt, we disagree. In our opinion, a premium quality wood is immensely better than hard rubber. It has more mass and produces a richer tone. Hard rubber is less expensive and easier to manufacture with, which makes it a tempting alternative. Wood takes longer to age before it can reliably be used in an instrument… but like they say: “Good things come to those who wait”.

  We believe that the “easy” way is not the right way when it comes to achieving the best performance from our Kessler Custom clarinet. We believe that a great piece of wood, like we use, is going to provide you with a better sound AND the stability that you require. Yes it costs us more and takes longer to do right, but it’s worth it because your sound is worth it.

  Your barrel and bell makes a huge difference in the performance of your wood clarinet. With most models of wood clarinet, we recommend customers upgrade to a higher end barrel and/or bell to further improve their performance. However, with our Kessler Custom Artist Series wood clarinet, we decided to make the better bell and barrel the standard equipment!

  The Barrels
  Artist Series barrels are a heavy mass barrel with a unique tapered bore designed to give exceptional tonal color and response. Throat tones are clear and powerful. A ringless design is used to maximize vibration. The Artist Series wood clarinet comes with both a 64mm & 66mm barrel standard. 65mm barrels are also available upon request.

  The Bell
  Artist Series clarinets utilize a custom heavy mass ringless bell. The custom bore of the bell is paired with a “Voicing Groove” in order to improve response throughout the whole range of the clarinet, but especially above the break.

  Every Kessler Custom Artist Series wood clarinet we send out to a customer is not released from us unless it has been completely setup in our shop first. This is because the setup on our wood clarinet is of the utmost importance! Sometimes, a clarinet (regardless of who the manufacturer or the price point is) comes in needing 20 minutes of adjustments and then the very next one can require 2 hours!

  This is why we perform our setup (in our www.ClarinetRepairs.com ProShop) on your new wood clarinet before delivering it to you. You trust us with your purchase and we want to make sure that you are rewarded by giving you your new Kessler Custom Artist Series wood clarinet setup flawlessly!

  Kessler Custom Artist Series Wood Clarinet
  Material	Premium Unstained Grenadilla
  Barrels	2 Premium Heavy Mass Barrels (64mm & 66mm)
  Bell	Heavy Mass Bell with Voicing Groove
  Pads	Custom Configuration of Valentino Master Series & Custom Felt Pads
  Key Style	Silver Plated
  Mouthpiece	Kessler Custom Plastic Student Model (upgrades available)
  Ligature	Rico H-Ligature in Silver Plate
  Case	Traditional Case
  Warranty	1 Year