HERCHE Superior Bb Clarinet X3 – Professional Grade

After too many years to write here (ok, nearly 50 years) I decided to play clarinet again. I found one at a deep discount store for $99. It wasn’t bad and I was happy to be playing again much quicker than I expected. When I felt ready to upgrade I looked for a great value in terms of reputation and cost. I kept coming back to Herche until I finally bought mine. I’m very happy with the improved sound, especially. Maybe I’ll join a local band, and if I audition I won’t be embarrassed for anyone to see my Herche.

Went together a little stiffly. Did ok w/ Rico reeds using stock mouthpiece and ligature. Vandoran and a assortment of synthetic reeds did not work so well. Did not like the new ligature. Substituted a Vandoran metal single screw ligature. It worked better. Substituted a D’Darrio Reserve mouthpiece. Worked great with all reeds, especially the Vandoran. Easiest clarinet I’ve had for crossing the bridge and continuing up the scale. Good tone. Easy for my small hands to play. Quick shipment, even during holiday season. Mouthpiece and ligature caused 4 stars and not 5.

First of all I like the way it looks, second, the sound is pure sweet. Quality at first glance is wonderful. I started playing the clarinet in grade school, the orthodontist told my parents if I didn’t stop playing he would not be able to get my teeth back in my mouth. So fifty years later I’m playing again and loving this three pice clarinet. I thought the price was great, now that I have played it, it’s a fantastic price. I would not buy a cheaper clarinet, buy this one for life enjoy

I have been playing clarinet and bass clarinet since 6th grade (I’m now 57 years old), and my youngest son has been playing since he was in 5th grade (now 20 years old and in major university marching and symphonic bands). So far we’ve bought my son two Legacy CL-750 Intermediate clarinets as well as a rather higher end Yamaha YCL-450NM Duet+ Intermediate Clarinet (resin/wood hybrid). My son now uses a “frankensteined” combination of the two Legacy CL-750 clarinet (combined into one adequately functioning clarinet) for marching season and uses the Yamaha YCL-450NM clarinet for symphonic band. The “frankenstein” repairs I’ve been making to the Legacy CL-750 clarinets have gotten to the point of sketchy success at best, so it was time to look for a new marching band clarinet, and we needed it to be Amazon quick delivery to receive it in time for a college football bowl game.

The Legacy CL-750 isn’t readily available anymore, or we might have been tempted to just go with a third one of those, but I’m also kind of unimpressed with each of the two Legacy CL-750’s only lasting a couple of years each before they really started deteriorating, requiring me to frequently perform some rather miraculous repairs. I was unimpressed with the quality of the other brands of clarinets available on Amazon, until I found this Herche X3. I really like that it is triple tested/inspected, comes with upgrade mouthpiece/ligature, the 1 & 3 year warranties are simply unheard of even with much higher end brands, and upon receiving it and testing it myself I was VERY impressed.

The Herche X3 is definitely somewhere between the Legacy CL-750 and Yamaha YCL-450NM, but definitely much closer in quality, sound, and construction to the Yamaha. It’s actually surprisingly close to the Yamaha considering the $1000+ price difference. Having worked on multiple brands of clarinets throughout my life (not as a professional but just as band student or father of band students), I can tell the Herche X3 is definitely a much higher end clarinet than most student models I’ve repaired and definitely worth the price. In fact, the Herche X3 is simply just an excellent deal. I was immediately able to get excellent sound out of it, my son can get even better sound out of it, and it’s so much easier to play than his now dodgy frankenstein Legacy CL-750.

The corks were moderately tight (but actually nowhere near as tight as the Yamaha YCL-450NM). However, simply putting cork grease on them and keeping the clarinet assembled for a few days compressed them nicely and now they’re just about perfect. The Herche X3 required no other adjustment at all, so you can definitely tell that whoever play tests these knows what they’re doing and they do not send out poorly adjusted instruments. The much more expensive Yamaha YCL-450NM actually required a lot more adjustment by me to be reliably playable, which was disappointing at the time and makes this Herche X3 purchase a very welcome surprise.

The included case is very nice — a little lacking in interior storage (there’s no interior compartment for reeds, cleaning cloth, etc.), but the exterior pocket storage has plenty of room for all that. It’s just not what we’re used to with previous cases. I do like the vertical rather than horizontal layout of this case as well. The included semi-hard case exterior is much harder and seemingly more durable than previous Legacy cases. The Yamaha came in a hardshell case, so it doesn’t really directly compare, but I actually like the Herche case better than the Yamaha case.

Herche also includes some nice accessories (a couple of Rico reeds, a cleaning cloth, cork grease, an upgraded Rovner style (I don’t think it’s the actual brand) leather ligature, a very similar upgraded mouthpiece to the Yamaha 4C, and they also include a rubber thumb rest pad. My son is just using his Yamaha 4C mouthpiece (that he’s been using with his Legacy clarinets) and a Vandoren LC51BP M/O ligature simply because that’s what he used to using. He says he might try both the included mouthpiece and ligature next marching season though, and both he and I were impressed with both of them.

Honestly, I wish we had bought my son the Herche X3 from the very beginning of his time in band. It is a much better instrument than the Legacy brand, and provides quality and features very close to much higher end instruments (Buffet, Yamaha, Artley, Selmer, Veto, etc.) at a fraction of the price. I do not regret buying the Yamaha YCL-450NM, as it is a beautiful and very well made wood clarinet, but it is definitely not the clarinet you would want to buy for marching band or even for a new student, whereas the Herche X3 is a perfect combination of quality, features, and price allowing for a no (or at least very little) compromise clarinet. Just being honest, I wouldn’t give any of the really inexpensive clarinets here on Amazon (Mendini, Jupiter, Cecilio, Jean Paul, Eastar, etc.) a second look.

If you’re shopping for a clarinet on Amazon, this is the one you should buy.