Yamaha SEVR Bb Clarinet

Yamaha is a latecomer to Earspasm for a bunch of reasons (for the whole story, click here to read why on the CSVR page). Suffice it to say, I recognized the error of my ways, and now we're carrying Yamaha soprano clarinets. But you'll still never see a Yamaha bass clarinet on this site until they redesign it. Another story for another time.

CSVR or SEVR?

The SEVR is a little darker, a little rounder than the CSVR. The tone holes are wider and more deeply undercut than the CSVR's, which makes it even more free-blowing than the CSVR. Holy crap is this free-blowing! You can get a huge sound with a nice clear "ping", or you can get a dark, moody, breathy sound if you prefer. This is the 128-crayon box with every subtle color you never knew you needed. But with that palette comes the responsibility to manage pitch more actively.

Speaking of which: you'll notice in the dashboard that this instrument appears to run flat, and I want to explain why. I use the same mouthpiece across all of my dashboard clarinets (Vandoren BD6 HD) so that I don't skew the data by switching setups between instruments. But the BD6 is clearly too open for the SEVR, which causes the scale to push down. A more resistant setup (closer tip opening, shorter facing) will bring the pitch up considerably and make the instrument much easier to control. If managing pitch is a typical concern for you, factor your mouthpiece choice in accordingly.

How it plays

This is the most pitch-stable clarinet I've analyzed, and it isn't a close race — soft to loud, it barely moves...which is the last thing I expected from something this open. Usually "free-blowing" means your face is doing all the work, and here it seems to not be the case. The bottom note of the horn still drops if you really lean on it, but from the throat up you can go from nothing to full and the pitch stays where you put it.

It's also nearly the fastest-speaking instrument I've analyzed — a hair behind the CSVR, and those two are well clear of everything else I carry.

Tonally it's about as consistent as it gets. Brightness overall sits mid-catalog, and the altissimo is on the darker end, which is what keeps the top from turning glassy when you push it.

Resistance: 2/10, Very Light

The lightest resistance instrument I carry, so if you're coming from anything more resistant than a Selmer Signature, give yourself some adjustment time — and think carefully about your mouthpiece setup.

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.

Before you decide

The CSVR costs exactly the same as this, so there's no money in the decision at all — it's purely which instrument you'd rather play. The CSVR's twelfths are better behaved and it speaks a touch quicker. The SEVR answers with the wider palette, the darker top, and pitch that holds better when you push it. If you want one instrument that does everything without you thinking about it, CSVR. If you want more colors in crayon box, this.

At the same money, the Backun Q Grenadilla has the most accurate scale in this bracket by a comfortable margin and the brightest top register of the group, though it's slower on the attack and it gives up a lot more pitch at loud dynamics. The Uebel Rêve Grenadilla is brighter than this, slower to speak, and its twelfths behave better. Both of those are more resistant instruments than the SEVR, which may be the whole decision depending on where you're coming from.

If the R13 is on your list, know that it's about nine hundred dollars more than either Yamaha, it's the brightest of anything here, and it loses more pitch when you play loud than anything else in this comparison. What it gives you is the sound everyone already has in their head.

Play or listen to all of them against each other in the audio player and pull up the dashboards side by side. If you're in New York, come play them in the shop instead — that's the better version of this.