Matched Pair of Yamaha Custom 82/85 Clarinets
A very fine condition matched pair of Yamaha Custom clarinets, which are a commission sale for Clarinets Direct. It is received wisdom within the music industry that when Yamaha launch a new product, they will have made every conceivable effort to outdo their competitors, at a considerably cheaper price to the customer. So it was in the late 1970's and early 1980's, when Yamaha made their first serious foray into top of the range professional clarinets. The wood was computer controlled, kiln dried, to assist in avoiding cracking, the silver plate, and key work, was of considerably better quality than Buffet. Many players found the ease with which these instruments responded completely won them over. Eddie Daniels, the well known jazz player was such a convert: Perhaps surprisingly he later preferred and endorsed the YCL64/65 range to the YCL81/82, 84/85 which were Yamaha's most expensive Custom models. The YCL82 Bb and YCL 85 A were the top of the range professional models of the 1980's.
These instruments are a one owner pair from new. The Bb has no cracks or damage to the wood, which is finest aged, unstained, Grenadilla. The Silver plated key work shows some slight discolouration, mainly to the long barrels on the upper joint, but for a 40 year old instrument it is in good condition. This clarinet has used fish skin pads throughout in good order. All touch and tenon corks are good, the instrument has been through our workshop for a regulation prior to sale. There is no joint wobble. The matching serial nos. are 02305. All pieces are matching and original.
The A is in slighly better ondition than the Bb, having seen less use. There are 2 "as new" white leather pads on the lower joint, the rest are used fish skin , like the Bb. Again the hand selected Grenadilla wood is in excellent condition, with no cracks or damage. The silver plate is also in good condition. The matching serial numbers are 00536. Both clarinets come with 2 barrels. The supplied m'pieces are a used Vandoren Master Cl4, and an original Yamaha 4C, both of which are in good used condition, as is the case. In addition to the original thumb rests a Ton Kooiman example is provided with two fitting plates, and also a K&M stand.