Jean Paul USACL-300 Student Clarinet B Flat

This clarinet is made pretty well. It has a good sound and is perfect for marching band. It’s a great clarinet for the price. We did have some issues with the mouthpiece. It was cut kind of rough and not rounded very well on the end, of that makes sense. I contacted the manufacture and they were on it immediately. We got a replacement mouth piece ASAP. They had us schedule a zoom meeting with one of the e employees so that he could hear the clarinet being played and make sure nothing else was wrong with the instrument. They even called a couple weeks later to make sure everything was still good with the clarinet. Great company! Great customer service! I highly recommend this clarinet.

Worth every penny and then some. I never played a reed instrument before buying this, and I was dubious whether I'd get an instrument, or a clarinet shaped object. When I pulled it out of the case, I didn't even know how to put it together. I'd never touched a reed before let alone assembled a ligature. I couldn't even get a note to come out at first. That's how new I was to this.It's been 2 months now with near daily practice. I have no teacher. I can play several songs, circular breath, play across the break in intermediate songs like The Pink Panther theme, and I can hold a note for 55 seconds without circular breathing. I am not some kind of wood wind prodigy. I credit having a GREAT instrument with my progress.Out of the case I was shocked at how heavy this clarinet is. It's heavier than my flute, which is all metal. The key material is also solid and did not require any adjustment in several weeks of playing now. The tenons are tight, but soon get to a comfortable resistance with frequent cork greasings at cleaning time.I ditched the stock mouth piece after a month and a half and got a Vandoren 5JB 88 with a Vandoren 1.5 reed. Just do it. You won't look back. I now have an instrument that is going to last me a long time before I need to upgrade, and to me that is what makes a good starter instrument. One that you don't need to immediately toss because it's holding you back or breaks.I also replaced the ligature with a single screw leather one which makes reed cleaning easier. The pads are still in good shape, no leaky keys, and it plays from bottom of the cleff up to the 3rd octave without any off or slow notes.I have a few minor nit picks though. As it came out of the box, it was 1/2 a semitone flat with either barrel in use. Changing the mouth piece solved that problem. You can compensate with your embouchure but as a new player I found it hard to do that AND concentrate on my scales at the same time. Mine did not come with a replacement reed either so be sure to buy a box of reeds. The stock mouth piece played best for me with a 3.0 reed strength. 2.0 was too easy to over blow and squeak in the lower register.I also recommend you get a stand that stores in the bell. I rarely disassemble my instrument now, and instead keep it next to my favorite chair, ready to grab and practice at any time.I've bought a few inexpensive instruments before on Amazon like a trumpet and a flute, which were around the same price as this clarinet, but far inferior in terms of quality, weight, and build. I feel like I got a really good deal on this clarinet at $180. With the new mouth piece I'm about $270 in, and feel like I have a $800 instrument.

Truth be told, I know very little about Clarinets myself. I got this for my 9yo to replace the rental that was costing us 3x the price (for just a year!) of this item. When it arrived it was well packaged and very clearly brand new. I didn't see any warping or obvious defects in the build which according to my research seems to be the biggest concern with low cost Clarinets. But again, I'm no expert, so I had it tested by a friend who is a professional multi-instrumentalist AND her band teacher. Both confirmed it was a good quality product and were surprised at how little I paid. The material is not plastic, it's a hardened rubber like material which is much more durable and (per their review) produces a better sound. No, it's not a high end piece and it will likely need a different mouthpiece as she gets more advanced but it is perfect for a begginer-to-mid level performer. Most importantly, she was ecstatic to be able to say she owned her insturment and that was good enough for me. I have no idea yet how far she will want to pursue playing but I'm glad we were able to find a piece for a fraction of the rental cost. Plus, should she decide to upgrade in the future or switch instruments we can sell this one as both people that actually know about these things explained it should have no issues holding up over time.

Disclaimer - I'm an old guy and my experience with Clarinets is ZERO.This clarinet appears well made, does not seem overly fragile. I do pay attention to where I grab it to twist things together. Everything fit well without needing excessive force to put together.I understand mechanical things well. I get no sense that this Clarinet is going to come apart soon. All the key actions are smooth and pads seem to land square on the holes. I get no sense that they are not sealing properly. The reason I say this is I did listen to several videos of Clarinets when things are wrong. The issues I relate to had to do with technique and not physical faults in a Clarinet.As far as sound, here I have no experience, so not much to comment. I have watched several youtube videos and can say mine sounds nothing like what I have listened to. So either my Clarinet is defective or it's me. I'm betting it's me. After playing with some different reeds and now a couple hours on it I only annoy a few neighborhood cats as I continue to sort things out. Initial progress going from no sound to horribly squeaky sound to now ( just work on it ) went fairly quickly. I look forward to to getting better.The only miss to me is the case. Everything fits in it well but...... There are two zippered pockets, one on top that is tight fitting meaning you could slip some sheets of paper in there and one on the bottom which has some depth to it so you could put supplies in it like reeds, cork grease, cleaning cloth.... The problem is these are all things you would like easy access to while assembling or taking apart the Clarinet. It would have made much more sense to put the bigger pouch on top. This would have given you access to the bits you want while the case is open to get to the Clarinet parts.So far I think this a really good price for what you get.