Uebel Vision Bb/A Clarinet - Grenadilla

Released in October, 2025, the Vision is one of Uebel’s two top-level clarinets, designed in collaboration with Ricardo Morales of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

It sits beside the Uebel Zenit, but aims at a different kind of player. Where the Zenit favors a broad sound, the Vision is cleaner and more focused.

If you think of the Zenit as Uebel’s “Romantic” clarinet, the Vision is its “Modern” one—still warm, but with more projection and a with a tighter, more defined core to the sound. I think it's intended for players who want a French-style response and evenness, but with Uebel’s German-style build precision.

The Vision includes — standard! — Uebel's "linked double-slide vent system." Translation: automatic low E/low F correction mechanism that deactivates/activates when the register key is pressed/released. It's one of those things you stop noticing once you have it, because those notes just stay in tune. It also carries over features from Uebel's German-system models: reinforced tenon rings for rigidity, and a slightly weighted bell that Uebel says adds stability in the low register and helps the sound project. Keywork is gold-plated posts and silver-plated keys, and the action is smooth out of the box.

How it plays

The Vision's scale is a really good reason to buy this clarinet. It has one of the most accurate chromatic scales of anything I've played — top handful out of the whole catalog. You play, and the notes go where you put them. On a horn this free-blowing, that's rare — most clarinets this open serve you a pitch problem as a side-dish.

So yeah, what I like most is that I can push air into it, change color, and the sound stays put. It doesn't spread when I lean on it and it doesn't get fuzzy when I back off. Note: I found that the twelfths at the top of the clarion run a bit wide against the chalumeau fundamental — that's the one place your ear has to work.

It's darker than people expect. The Vision looks and feels like the modern, cleaner instrument next to the Zenit, so everybody assumes it's the brighter one. It isn't. It sits on the darker end of our catalog, darker than the Zenit, with less spread to the sound. That combination — dark but compact — is what translates as "clean" when I play it, and it's why people describe it as "projecting" when what they're actually hearing is a focused, dark core...which, now that I re-read that sentence, I guess means "projecting" after all.

Resistance: 4/10, Light

One of the more free-blowing professional clarinets you'll find. 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

The Zenit is the obvious one — broader, better twelfths, and it holds pitch better than almost anything I carry when you push volume. The Backun Lumière in grenadilla is one of a handful of horns with a more accurate chromatic scale than the Vision, and its twelfths line up better too, though it's brighter and pushes back more. And the Backun Essence in grenadilla is darker still, holds pitch from soft to loud better than nearly everything I've measured, and costs less. All three have full recordings and dashboards on their pages, so you can A/B them from your couch before you order anything.