Jean Paul CL-400 Intermediate Bb Clarinet with ABS Body, Synthetic Pads and Silver-Plated Keys

One year ago I bought a Jean Paul intermediate trumpet. Played for 8 months and then bought a Yamaha pro trumpet and gave the JP trumpet to my son to learn on. We train every day. His JP trumpet is a workhorse. Sometimes we switch and I play the JP instead of the Yamaha 6335, and it is astounding how good the JP is compared to the Yamaha. The sound is VERY close and the feel is of course not as "refined" I guess, but it doesn't seem to matter. The JP of course does not have the compression that the Yamaha pro trumpet has, but for beginning players it is a really great quality instrument from a really great company. They even built me some custom gold plated valve stems after I ordered the student trumpet. This company seems to be really about pleasing the customer.So, I decided to try the clarinet. Bought this from JP a few days ago and I can already tell it is SOLID with a capital S. It's gonna be fun learning this thing!

This is an upgrade from the school one last year, my student is on her 2nd band year and intends on continuing to play. I foresee a few years out of this clarinet. The sound is lovely and it looks beautiful. Her teacher threw a fit about buying an “Amazon made in china” instrument but this is made in USA and is lovely!

I bought this for my daughter when her previous over 30 year old Clarinet broke. Thus far her only complaints come from the "slime" coming from the bottom of the clarinet after long periods of play.Yep, that's right... this thing is new and clean and she can't seem to grasp the fact that her own spit has found its way out of the bottom of the instrument. My wife, a clarinet player herself keeps trying to steal it. For the price, this thing simply cannot be beat.Only concern, it comes with two barrels, this confused myself and my wife, my daughter uses the shorter of the two. But, this did turn into a bit of a lesson on clarinets, because multiple barrel options is a thing advanced players would actually want. So if you're not expecting it, the extra part can be a bit of a surprise.This is our second Jean Paul instrument, the first being their TR-430 Trumpet, both are doing very well.Original Review: February 24, 2019Updated Review: January 13, 2021This Clarinet survived my daughter's Freshman year of marching band abuse with no complaints or issues we couldn't fix ourselves. I have no doubt that we'd be working well into our second year of marching band were it not for the pandemic.

After not playing for more than 10 years, I decided that I wanted to get back into playing. I watched some reviews on student clarinets to see which brands came up as being a good value brand that sounded good enough for my own purposes. I kept seeing Jean Paul coming up over and over again as a good price for performance. So, I gave them a try. Overall, I think I picked the best instrument for me for the price. I do suggest that you invest in better quality reeds and swabs than what come with this one. The ligature may give first time players a lot of trouble, so I would suggest the CL-300 over CL-400 if you are trying to decide and do not have a standard ligature to swap in if the Rico H Ligature becomes to cumbersome for young learners.I did remove one star because the longer barrel had an unsecured piece of trim upon arrival (in the photographs). I had to contact Jean Paul and they quickly remedied this by sending me a brand new barrel within a week. Overall, this would be a great instrument for those looking to get back into playing without spending too much money. I would not call this exactly a step up from my plastic Selmer Bundy that I learned to play on.

My daughter used hers for 5 months and now a key broke off and it's useless!

Clean nice instrument

I had originally bought my daughter the cheaper version of the clarinet by Jean Paul when she began. That is an excellent clarinet for beginners. Over time - 4 years later - things are starting to wear down on that older one and she is now at an intermediate level so was ready for a higher quality clarinet for All State Band tryouts. She is extremely happy with it and the sound is beautiful. The case is of the highest quality as well (better than the one that came with the cheaper clarinet.)

My son has been using this clarinet for school for about one year. Today we had to take it in for repair. Bent key. Found out the keys are a soft metal. So they bend easy. Was told we will have issues going forward with this instrument. Definitely not intermediate. More beginner, but I wish I would of just rented one instead of buying this one.