Thomann CL-17C C-Clarinet Boehm

The instrument arrived promptly with many useful accessories (cork grease, reeds, sling, ligature, polishing cloth) in a smart, compact and lightweight carry case. The corks are not oversized so the instrument goes together easily. The keywork is light and responsive. No adjustment was required to play straight out of the box. The tone of the instrument is beautiful and the leadwood has an attractive appearance.

However, even using the shorter of the two barrels supplied and a good 2 1/2 strength reed, it played consistently flat at a normal room temperature (18 degrees celsius). In correspondence with Thomann about the problem they confirmed by experiment that the instrument needs to be at 21 degrees celsius to play in tune at A440Hz. This makes it unusable to play with a piano at concert pitch for most of the year where we live (South Yorkshire) - unless you like your house uncomfortably hot - so we had to return it. With other instruments (strings, woodwind) that could be detuned it would likely be acceptable.