The Polaris was Royal's first professional clarinet — the design Yuan Gao built when he started building. It has gone through design iterations during its lifetime, most recently the summer of 2025. It shares the Firebird's case, gold posts, and ergonomic register key, but without the double-register mechanism and D/G vent that came later. Think of it as the foundation the Firebird was built on.

Back to that register key for a sec — it's worth spending a minute talking about. Yuan Gao designed the register key with human thumbs in mind. Instead of the skinny vertical touchpiece common on just about every clarinet ever made, Royal's version is plumper and angled. Dear God, it's ergonomic. I shouldn't love it as much as I do since it's such a small detail, but I do.

Anyway, this is the most free-blowing Royal in the lineup. If you're coming from Selmer or just like a wide color palette without fighting the instrument, the Polaris will feel familiar. Counterintuitively, it's also the darkest-sounding Royal I've tested — noticeably darker than the Classical Limited or Firebird.

The dashboard data shows a tight scale — one of the best in the entry-pro tier. Clarion is a little low, but definitely manageable with embouchure. Like the MAX and Classical Limited, 3-finger C drops about 31¢ from pp to ff — which I think is a Royal bore characteristic. Solid 12ths, and articulation is clean and even.

If you want the original Royal design, free-blowing and dark — this is the one.

Resistance: 7/10, Medium-Heavy

The Polaris is quite a free-blowing instrument, as are most Selmer clarinets (notable exception: the Recital). This provides a wide range of color options, from brash, screaming new music or jazz to a refined Brahms sonata or Mozart symphony.

In general, added resistance in a clarinet design usually keeps the louder dynamic ranges from spreading; the clarinet "holds its core" and focus, but will provide a smaller dynamic range (on both ends, loud and soft) and smaller color palette. A less resistant clarinet typically provides a much wider tonal palette to choose from, but will require more control from the player to control pitch and sound consistency.

When listening for how a clarinet responds to added air pressure and embouchure control, listen to the Weber example (wide dynamic range and color range), then the Berlioz excerpt (wide dynamic range, but narrow color range), and finally the Gershwin excerpt (narrow dynamic range and narrow color range). You will hear how these clarinets respond — for better or worse! — to my input as a clarinet player.