Boosey and Hawkes “The Edgware” Clarinet

Introduction: There was a time in my life not too long ago where I was pretty careless and overly confident in my ability to repair instruments. This of course led me to buy just about any instrument I came across in thrift stores and antique stores, regardless of the brand or condition before learning my lesson with a bass clarinet, which I might write about later. So it was that one day I came across this old Boosey and Hawkes “The Edgware” clarinet at a local antique store. If you know anything about antique dealers, often their prices are quite high and such was the case with this instrument. It was marked at $90, but shortly after buying it a quick internet search revealed that the horn was really only worth about $30-$40 in its condition. And believe me, this thing was in a condition. It was unplayable as it came to me, it was absolutely covered in dust and grime, needed all new pads, two new springs and all new tenon corks. After getting it fixed up some and playing it, here are my thoughts.

General Information: This is a Boosey and Hawkes “The Edgware” clarinet manufactured sometime between the 1940s-1960s if internet research is to be believed. This is a hard rubber clarinet as far as I can tell and I do not think that B&H still makes clarinets.

Playability and Tuning: Having never owned a B&H instrument of any kind, I wasn’t sure what to expect and some conversations on online forums did not give me any additional confidence. However, I was presently surprised by the responsiveness of the instrument, and there were no stuffy notes to speak of when I played it with my Vandoren BD5 mouthpiece. The sound was pretty centered and I found it to be a lot more centered than my other plastic resin instruments. That being said though, I found getting an edge and projection to be a challenge with this horn, as it sort of liked to get a very centered sound and then just kind of stay there. Tuning was pretty decent overall, with the biggest problem being some  throat tone issues but otherwise nothing that bothered my ear or my tuner too much. Altissimo was a strangely good experience with this clarinet, as it was incredibly responsive and really projected well. I was not expecting this at all, especially given how the lower end of the horn sounded and felt. All and all, not too bad and much better than I was expecting.

Construction and Build Quality: The body looks and feels of good quality, and like some of my other old student horns, the Edgware is quite heavy. Aesthetically, the horn is nice to look at, aside from the odd proportions of the bell which does not flare out as much as I would normally expect. The nickel plated keywork on the other hand is not great, as I think it feels kind of loose and the action just kind of gets the job done. There is hardly any spring at all in the LH pinkie keys, and they kind of just move into and out of place. Definitely not a satisfying keywork experience on this one, and I think another good word for this would be soft as the metal does bend easily. I think this gives away this instrument’s student status the most of anything.

Case: I did not receive the original case with this horn, and the case that came with it was destroyed so there is really no point in reviewing that.

Conclusion: This horn is sort of a mixed bag for me. It plays very well given what it is, and has a very centered sound and transitions between the ranges are very good. Like I said before, altissimo tunes great on this thing and the clarity and response outshines many of my other horns and transitioning up to it is simple and clean, maybe even the best in my collection in that regard. Overall, I like the way it plays and sounds, but it feels kind of cheap in terms of keywork which I hate to say given how it plays. Looking back, was buying this horn a smart decision? No probably not from an investment standpoint, but it was fun to fix up and I do enjoy playing on it. It is also the first and only hard rubber clarinet I own, so that makes it pretty unique in the collection.

These clarinets aren’t worth much these days and are quite elusive, so I will likely keep it and continue to play it, and overall I am glad to have the thing. It really would not be bad for a student to start on at all, especially if you get one in good shape for a decent price. I probably would not pay more than like $100 for one though, as you could put a little more with it and get a Bundy or Vito that would be a lot more value for the money. Finding a cheap one may be a challenge though as people are so quick to slap a hefty price tag on just about any old horn they have not seen before, claiming it is a “RARE valuable antique!”