Backun Lumière Bb/A Clarinet - Grenadilla

In 2000, Morrie Backun was running a repair shop in Vancouver when Wes Foster — principal clarinet of the Vancouver Symphony — brought in a clarinet with a missing barrel. Rather than order a replacement, Morrie made one from cocobolo. That barrel launched Backun Musical Services. Barrels led to bells (2001), bells to mouthpieces (2004), mouthpieces to a stint designing clarinets for Leblanc (2006–2010), and when that ended, Morrie launched his own instruments at the 2011 NAMM Show. The Lumière is what two decades of obsession looks like.

This is Backun's flagship, hand-made in Canada. (I met the unbelievably sweet husband-and-wife team who polish the joints before the posts are attached.) The instrument was designed around what Backun calls the "Backun Scale" (which makes me wonder if this is a new mode they're teaching in Music Theory, but I digress). The automatic low F vent is one of the first to be released (Uebel is now producing their own automatic low F/low E system as well). Unlike Buffet's Tosca or Selmer's Muse, you don't activate it with a pinky or thumb. It just works. Low F, you are no longer flat (okay, barely). The register key has a voicing pin that Morrie could explain in 45 minutes with a pot of coffee. I have no idea how it works, but it works. That, plus the double-voicing groove bell, makes the break smooth like butter — and my data backs that up: the notes across the break measure among the cleanest of anything I've fingerprinted.

The arched trill keys are thicker than most, and the entire instrument feels denser in your hands. Backun repositioned the tone holes to reduce water pooling in the key cups — a practical touch that matters more than it sounds. Carbon fiber tenons instead of metal, so they won't loosen in dry weather. Hell, the whole instrument feels nice. If you were blindfolded, you'd feel the difference before you put it in your mouth. Some people love that. Some people recoil because it doesn't feel like an R13. Actually, nothing about this instrument feels like an R13, which is kind of the point.

How it plays

The "Backun Scale" isn't marketing (well, it is...but): this is one of the two or three most accurate scales I've fingerprinted. Medium-bright, with even color note to note.

The trade: attacks are a touch slower than the average. This horn rewards air and line over pop — if super-pingy articulation is the thing that's most important, there are alternatives below that do that. But the Lumière answers them with its scale and the break.

Resistance: 7/10, Medium-heavy

It pushes back more than most of what I carry — pleasant but not overbearing. Hear how it responds to volume in the audio player below — Weber first (wide dynamics, wide color), then the Berlioz (wide dynamics, narrow color), then the Gershwin (narrow on both).

Before you decide

At the flagship tier, three horns frame the Lumière's trade-offs.

The Seggelke Series 1000+ is the custom-shop alternative — darker, quicker-articulating, and it holds pitch better when you push volume, but the Lumière's scale is more accurate note to note. The Uebel Vision is darker and plays more open, with scale accuracy in the same league; the Lumière's twelfths line up better. The Uebel Zenit is the light-resistance counterpoint — it holds pitch under volume — but the Lumière beats it on scale accuracy and twelfths.

Play or listen to all three against the Lumière in the audio player and pull up the dashboards. Buy the Lumière if the scale, the break, and the hand-feel are the point; if you want the same tier with less push-back, start with the Zenit or Vision.