Author: jcm499
Date: 2018-01-18 11:13
This topic is surprisingly complicated, but Dan’s link has a good summary. I would add that, to my knowledge, the only of those models currently available new are the E11 and E13.
The E11 is certainly one of the most popular affordable wood clarinets available, so it’s a very standard, unremarkable sort of instrument, which I do not mean in a negative way. To the contrary, it’s a versatile all-around model. For a few years, I believe around 2008-2010, the E11 (which was made in Germany for Buffet by Schreiber, a fine manufacturer in its own right) was replaced with the French-made E11F, which was regarded as having some technical disadvantages compared with the German-made E11. Now Buffet has acquired Schreiber, which has resumed making the E11 in lieu of the E11F.
The E12, the horn I grew up with, was a less common and somewhat mysterious model, at least in my neck of the woods. I only ever met one other person who had one. I recall promotional materials around the time (c. 1998) said it was like an E11, but “with a special bore treatment that made it more sophisticated,” so it’s supposedly a notch “better” than, but similar to, the E11. Like the E11, it was made for Buffet by Schreiber in Germany. It has since been discontinued and replaced with the French-made E12F, which unlike the E11F is apparently pretty well regarded though I’ve never tried one myself.
The E10, which is no longer available, was just an E11 with a plastic bell, so a notch below the E11. Maybe you were confusing it with the more popular B10, also no longer available, which was an entry level plastic horn?
The E13 was rumored to be an R13 (Buffet’s standard professional model) that didn’t quite make it through testing, but I’m not so sure that’s true. Buffet claims the model is derived from the BC20 (another professional model designed with Jacques Launcelot) but has the bell of the RC (yet another professional model) – in short, a different design. Unlike the E11 and the old E12, the E13 is made in France.
My advice is, if you are set on a Buffet, just to bite the bullet and get an R13, the standard professional model. If you are serious about the clarinet at all, you’ll end up wanting one eventually, and even if you’re not serious about the clarinet, R13 resale value is far better than student models. Besides life is short, why bother with almosts and not-quites?
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