 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bflatclarinetist
Date: 2005-04-25 22:25
Okay, when I told my teacher that I was interested in buying a yamaha clarinet she stopped me right away and told me to not buy one because they break easily. Then she right away reccomended a buffet because she says they are more durable, and that she'd rather have me play an e-11 than a Yamaha professional clarinet.
Is this statement true? By yamaha and buffet owners that is.
Thank you
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Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2005-04-25 22:30
If Yamaha clarinets "break easier" than Buffets, I have never heard of or experiened. My suggestion: ask those who play either brand for their opinion. You will soon come to an conclusion yourself.
I wonder what your teacher think of other non-Buffets......
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-04-25 22:33
It would have been a lot more honest for your teacher to just say she didn't like Yamahas.
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2005-04-25 22:40
Hrm... I think that's simply not true. Ask your teacher to show you evidence.
But seriously have you tried the new Yamaha pros? They're REALLY good!
Your teacher better have a REALLY good reason for you not to buy Yamaha.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-25 23:00
Would I buy a Yamaha over a Buffet?
No, not at all, but there are players who do like them.
Personally, I'm prejudiced for Buffet and against the other manufacturers.
I've yet to try a set of Clarinets that I liked more than my R-13 Prestiges
Post Edited (2005-04-27 00:08)
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-04-25 23:34
Well, I own a Yamaha 52 and it DID crack (6 times to be exact!).
However, my friend has a Yamaha Allegro and hers has not cracked and hasn't really needed any repair except repadding (the usual.)
I tried a Yamaha SE and it was absolutely fantastic! I have also tried many R13's lately-they have a nice tone, but the intonation was very poor. Yamaha's intonation seems pretty solid throughout all of their clarinets.
Try the R13, the Yamaha CSG (which I hear are excellent from many sources), and the upper line Selmers and Leblancs. I tried a Leblanc Sonata recently, and I thought it sounded very good! It's about 1,400 on wwbw and it's their lower line professional model clarinet, probably close to the R13. Maybe a little lower?
I think the Professional Yamaha's sound great!!! Try them out! Don't just limit yourself to Yamaha or Buffet either, like I mentioned earlier.
I am currently having the same thing with my teacher, she is pro-Buffet all the way and I have tried many Buffet's and I just can't find any golden one. Although, you'd be safe to go through muncywinds.com and Mr. Muncy could hand select you an R13.
Try them both out and pick what's best for YOU. Also, if you are graduating soon, then you won't have to deal with it for much longer.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-04-25 23:59
Well, my cousin's uncle's neighbor's sister who has a friend who's on the board of Yamaha says you're puffing hot air.
Hearsay of the worst kind.
It might be true, it might not be true, but if it was ... they still honored their guarantee, I'll wager.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-04-26 00:54
Use threaded views and you can see the responses in their correct order; I should have quoted to make it clear, though. My bad.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-04-26 01:15
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> It was me, I had written about a cracking problem that one of
> the companies was reputed to have back a few years ago.
>
> But since I don't have a notarized document from them about the
> problem, it wouldn't be right to post it as it's hearsay.
You wouldn't need a notarized document. If an offical (or even an employee) of Yamaha had told you, I wouldn't have said a word.
I find it a lot more convincing that the price of the 52s was lowered just before a new set of models came out ...
> You know how the corporations work.
Yup. Work for a big one now, have worked for big ones before. They're generally not dishonest.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-04-26 01:22
Sounds like your teacher is a buffet person. So take it at face value. And realize that no matter what you suggest, they'll probably either recommend a buffet in it's place, or speak about it through a "buffet" voice (ie - the proffessor at my school talking about selmers as being "Very good professional clarinets. Almost like buffets" or about yamahas as "Excellent clarinets. Very Buffet-like". etc. etc.!)
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: allencole
Date: 2005-04-26 08:32
Clearly, the clarinet world has some prejudice towards Buffet and the sax world has some towards Selmer--which has been shaken by some terrific upstarts.
If I have a student who may be on the career track, I will inform them and their parents of these prejudices and refer to them as such. I've seen both high school and college band directors get incredibly pushy about brands in an effort to have their sections be composed of like instruments and even like mouthpieces. A bit selfish, IMHO.
I think that you can take a professional quality instrument of ANY brand and learn to play it in tune with a nice sound. As long as the quality is there, issues of one brand over another are largely a matter of popular opinion (or hangups) among existing professionals. How much to be swayed by this depends on how much of an effect the prejudices might have on your career.
Allen Cole
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Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2005-04-26 12:20
Yamahas break easily? What does this mean? They crack? The keywork is soft? The posts pull out? Your teacher just wants you to buy a Buffet and (s)he should just come out and say it.
I have a Bb Yamaha SE-V that is a beautiful instrument. It's now about 4 years old and it just gets better with time. I love the solid keywork and the feel of the instrument. It feels different than my other instruments (Vito/Yvette) and that took a while to get used to but I'm very happy with it. My only remaining issues are with the throat tones. I wish they were more full, but I'm working on that. Sure it's possible that this clarinet won't last another 20 years. It may start falling apart every time I take it out of the case. I doubt that this will happen.
BTW, this clarinet is so nice that I just purchased an SE-V in A to go along with it. The A is an even nicer clarinet with gorgeous sound & feel.
Before I purchased my Bb I tried out a number of different instruments from different manufacturers, including an R13. The only instrument I looked at that was obviously substandard was the R13. Cracked bell, leaking register tube, both on a brand new instrument. This did not leave me with a good feeling about purchasing an R13. I'm sure someone could say the same about some Yamaha they tried but the point is that for me the Yamaha was superior in every way to the R13.
Don't buy into rash generalizations.
MOO & YMMV, FWIW!!
Matt
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2005-04-26 14:40
Matt Locker, sounds like you only tried one R13? Anyway, there are great R13s and there are horrible R13s. Too bad (or is it...) you found a bad one.
I play Buffet clarinets (although my main Bb is now Eaton) and they are great. I haven't played Yamahas but many people like them very much. About Yamahas breaking easily, that is just rediculous. I promise you I can break my Buffet in no time 
Post Edited (2005-04-26 14:41)
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Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2005-04-26 15:21
Clarnibass:
Yes you are correct I tried only one. I'm in an area where it's hard to sample many instruments without a great deal of pain. I tried a Leblanc Concerto, various Selmers, and the Yamaha SEV from my local music store. I also had an R13 and a couple different Yamahas sent to me by WWBW. My experience from that was that the Yamaha at the time was about 98% of what the R13 was from the perspective of feel/playability. I did feel that the R13 had a marginally better playability compared to the SEV. The R13 also had considerably worse tuning in comparison. These two were the best of the ones I tried. I felt that due to the quality issues of the R13 listed above and the very nice feel & tuning of the SEV that my needs would be best served with the SE-V. I'm happy I made the decision I made, as I have been well served by the Yamaha.
I know that very nice R13s can be found. I also know that very nice Yamahas, Selmers, etc can be found. But to write off an entire company due to an off-hand remark needs to be responded to. The point of my reply was to give my experience with Yamaha & compare to my same experience with the R13.
MOO,
Matt
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2005-04-26 17:16
Any wooden instrument can crack. Buffet clarinets crack if not cared for properly. I've recently purchased 2 Yamaha 52s for students and am very pleased with both of them. They were easily affordable (both were under $500.00 each) and have a nice tone and good key action.
However, if money is no object, I would try to get a Buffet R-13 just because it will "play well with others" in almost every setting. But, a good used R-13 will still run you about $1,000.00 or more.
The last few years Yamaha has greatly improved. I hear what your teacher is saying--and if your teacher doesn't like a particular instrument she/he might be a bit prejudiced toward your playing it. So--go with the teacher's recommendation. Perhaps he/she would be willing to help you select one.
IMHO, there are good instruments out there in almost everyone's price range.
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Author: bflatclarinetist
Date: 2005-04-26 20:14
I tried a yamaha intermediate instrument and a buffet intermediate instrument and didn't like the buffet because some notes were difficult to get a proper sound. But it came to my conclusion that it's probably just because the instrument isn't worn out yet because it was new when I tried it out. And that the yamaha sounds better because more people have probably tested it out since the person in charge of the sales immediately reccomended yamaha and was blabbing about how good it was and didn't mention anything about the buffet so customers probably tried the yamaha out.
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Author: bflatclarinetist
Date: 2005-04-26 20:15
But I'll just get a buffet anyway if she reccomends it, plus she'll be all "grr.." with me if I don't.
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