Saxophones Buffet Crampon vs Yamaha

[Sax Amateur]

Hello!
Ihave intention to buy a new tenor sax to play in local marching band.
I have limited budget (1200€) and i have few offers:

Yamaha YTS-275
Buffet Crampon BC8102 Serie 100
Buffet Crampon BC8402 Serie 400

I know Yamaha is reliable and quality, but it cost exactly 1200€, but about Buffet Crampon i don't know anything but they are cheaper.
Does anybody have experiance with this models and what should i choose?
Thanks!

 

[Justin Chune]

If you play test all of them I'm sure you will like the Buffet 400. For a marching band I would just buy something cheap and cheerful and keep the new sax for indoor gigs.

Jim.

 

[Musicrocks]

Have a Yamaha yts 275 myself and it's really lovely. Have not played the BC but have not heard anything negative so far on the net.

With the hard handling of instruments in marching bands, would best to go for the BC as you won't feel so bad if anything happens to it and if you are starting out, then you can go for the cheaper BC model as I don't think the the differences between the BC and the Yamahas would be that noticable.

 

[jrintaha]

Or buy something even cheaper, such as a Gear4Music tenor, since chances are it's going to get roughed up anyway.

 

[Sax Amateur]

I'm very careful guy and i have never scratched my sax, so i have intention to continue that practice.
We are formally marching band, but most of our gigs are indoors, so i'm more focused on mechanical and sound quality, so i'm interested who has advantage from that point of view and how significant it is.
Nobody said something about serie 100. Is it good?

 

[DavidUK]

Buffet 400 tenor £799 in lacquer or £899 in matte, brand new, seems a better buy than the Yamaha.

I had both YAS-275 and Buffet 400 Alto in matte and the Buffet has a far nicer tone so the Yamaha went.

 

[milandro]

Buffet 100 and 400 are two rebranded (and way more expensive that they originally were) Chinese made horns.

Buffet doesn’t produce them directly and they are made by a company that sells them also under other names.

Yamaha also produces now directly in China, these saxophones are made to specific Yamaha requirements and are made exclusively for Yamaha.

The resell value of a Yamaha second hand would be higher than a Buffet.

You can easily buy a cheap and problem free second hand Yamaha (which is very much loved by technicians for its ease to maintain it ) and in my experience you can choose among so many that you can take your pick and get yourself a 23, 25, 275 all made in Japan if you look well around.

An alternative to these is to buy a Vito-Yamaha (they are almost identical to a 23 model) , the market doesn’t like the name and they are even cheaper than Yamaha.

 

[DavidUK]

You just try and find a 2nd hand Buffet 400!

;}

 

[milandro]

they do appear quite regularly, really (here just a few.......) and that is a relatively new and now very widely sold saxophone, nowhere near the capillar distribution of the Yamahas

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?165644-FS-Buffet-400-Matte-Lacquer-alto
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showth...BC70145-Tenor-Saxophone-400-Series-Antiqued-F
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?180353-FS-Buffet-Crampon-400-Series-Alto
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showth...Crampon-400-Tenor-Sax-(Buffets-new-pro-model)

 

[DavidUK]

You just try and find a 2nd hand Buffet 400....

;}

..... in the UK!

To be fair, I did find one for £830 which is a good deal more than a 2nd hand Yamaha starter model.

Have you personally compared the two (Alto model) horns side by side, as I have, and had your sax tech tell you the Buffet is every bit as well made as the Yamaha?

 

[milandro]

I have direct experience with the Buffet 400 tenor which I did try at the Messe in Frankfurt (and the same model bought at the Frankfurter Messe from a Chinese vendor) and it is a nice sax but (despite the lavish engraving) way more crudely made than a Yamaha 275.

On the plus side the Buffet 400 has a big bold sound........which made it difficult for me to sell it to, for example, a girl who was seeking to by a sax to play in a marching band because she found it to be too ........bold .

Again there is nothing wrong with buying a Buffet as long as you know what you are buying and that you are happy with spending a lot of money for a sax that has only the name of Buffet laser engraved on it.

 

[aldevis]

I am not an endorser for them, but what about a Jericho? I have not tried their tenor, but their alto is quite promising.
In the €1200 range, you can have several options, even a used Sequoia if you are lucky (I endorse these instead).

 

[milandro]

Oh well Aldevis, not that I want to be necessarily argumentative with you......... but if OP had asked a comparison between brand B & Y we should better stick to that because if we start suggesting brands from all the other alphabets in the world he is going to end up with a list of names most of which are probably not available to him.

by the way Sax Amateur, these are the Buffet prices in the UK

http://www.sax.co.uk/acatalog/Buffet-Alto-Saxophones.html

 

[aldevis]

Oh well Aldevis, not that I want to be necessarily argumentative with you......... but if OP had asked a comparison between brand B & Y we should better stick to that because if we start suggesting brands from all the other alphabets in the world he is going to end up with a list of names most of which are probably not available to him.

I agree, but a €1200 horn in a marching band makes me cry...
But you gave me a good idea: I should register the "Aardvark Saxophones" brand. The first in the alphabet.

 

[milandro]

well, perhaps some folks have been thinking of similar names before and they might not be amused

 

[milandro]

aardvark orchestra

 

[Sax Amateur]

Unfortunately i can buy it only in Croatia and I'm loking new instrument, so i have not much options except this 3. Te other options are to expensive or not good enough.
I'm glad i can see a lot of comments, it is very helpful to me.
At this moment, i think i'll take Yamaha, but i have few more days to make final decision. If someone has something more to say, I'll be glad to hear.
p.s. milandro, nice videos!

 

[Musicrocks]

THe Yamaha is great and tends to have great QC in general (Don't know much about the BC). THe 275's are being built in Indonesia these days (don't really know how they landed up there when everyone else has either gone to China or THailand). However, it seems to be really amazing and very very easy to blow. Sound wise, you can always adjust your mouthpiece/reeds but the tone sounds pretty good and these are definitely built to last.

Seems to me that you aren't too worried about trying to test the tones that the BC and Yamahas produce. I picked the Yamaha blindly and for me it's something I want to play everyday. If you think that you want to pick up that Yamaha, go for it. ONe of the other reasons I picked the Yamaha is that all products of Yamaha that I have owned over the years, all have been just about perfect.

 

[kevgermany]

One issue with the Buffets is that some models have suffered from the lacquer deteriorating quickly. No-one seems to know if it's been sorted out or not. Makes the Yamaha a better choice if future resale value is a concern.

 

[TomMapfumo]

Buffet 400 everytime, no question! I would never buy a saxophone with the intention of selling it - can't see the point. Speaking to one of the sax guys at Howarth he did think that the Buffet 400 was a better sound than a Yanagisawa T901, which was more than twice the price. My main experience of the Buffet and Yamaha issue is on Alto and thought that the Yamaha 275 sounded ordinary, and no way came close to the Buffet 400. If you can try and compare both I'd be interested in your view.

You may find this helpful: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?68225-Who-has-played-the-new-Buffet-400-tenor

Kind regards
Tom

Where in Croatia are you?