A cylindrical-bore professional A clarinet with a warm, round tone built for blending. Hand-selected and fully optimized over 9 hours with custom leather pads by Rodriguez Musical Services.
$8,648.00
The Buffet Crampon Tradition is an entirely separate instrument with its own bore design and tonal character. Where the R13 uses a polycylindrical bore, the Tradition uses a cylindrical bore with a smaller diameter inspired by pre-1950s vintage clarinet designs. The tone holes borrow from Buffet’s Tosca engineering. The result is a sound that is warm, round, intimate, and exceptionally rich in color.
The Tradition A features silver-plated keywork, a low F correction key, metal tenon caps, and unplated nickel silver posts. The bore produces modern intonation accuracy while retaining the warmth and color range associated with older cylindrical designs. Developed collaboratively by prominent American and French artists and introduced in 2016, the Tradition has built a steady and devoted following.
Every Tradition A that Rodriguez Musical Services sells has been hand-selected by our performing clarinetists. We play-test numerous factory instruments to identify the clarinets with a rich, resonant tone, a sweet core (one that ‘sings’), evenness of scale and resistance, a sound that exhibits a large spectrum of colors, and the most consistent intonation.
Each selected Tradition A then goes through the RMS 9-Hour Optimization. The instrument is completely disassembled, and every pad, bumper, and cork is removed until only grenadilla wood and metal remain. Custom leather pads replace the factory originals. Springs are adjusted, key heights are calibrated, and the entire mechanism is regulated so that the action feels effortless and the response is even across every register and dynamic level.
The result is what we call “performance ready”: smooth key action, rich and resonant tone, and consistent response from the bottom of the chalumeau through the top of the altissimo.
Orchestral professionals and chamber musicians who prioritize color and tonal beauty gravitate toward the Tradition A. Much of the core A clarinet repertoire (Mozart, Brahms, Weber, Strauss) rewards exactly the kind of warmth and singing quality that the Tradition delivers.
The Tradition is also a compelling option for advanced students and young professionals who have played an R13 and are looking for something with a different tonal personality. Players exploring the cylindrical bore family for the first time often find the Tradition a natural starting point, with the Légende occupying the tier above for those who want to go further into that sound world.
| Body | African blackwood (grenadilla) |
| Bore | Tradition cylindrical (with Tosca-derived tone holes) |
| Key | A |
| Keys | Silver-plated |
| Features | Low F correction key, metal tenon caps, unplated nickel silver pillars |
| Pads | Custom leather (RMS-installed) |
| Springs | Blue steel |
| Includes | Original Buffet Crampon case, RMS certificate of optimization |
Contact for availability. Trial eligible; request a trial to compare two hand-selected instruments in your home for 5 days.
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