I`m not really a flute player...more into clarinets but my grandma found a flute in a thrift store for $100...it had Buffet-Crampon engraved on the joints, and the number 225 and Cooperscale on it....it also has the letters ARC engraved on it.....

Now I don`t know a whole lot about flutes, but i don`t think Buffet makes flutes now...it has a closed-hole system, but I couldn`t find out anything else about it....If you know anything please let me know!

I have just serviced another Buffet flute and test-played it. As usual with this make, I was very disappointed with volume/tone/response. It is particularly poor around E in the second octave. My experience suggests that this is because of poor design of the embouchure hole area.

A student using one of these COULD be rather disappointed with his/her playing results, compared with other players on better designed instruments. Such students tend to blame themselves, and are far more likely to give up playing.

This just shows how flute fashions have changed. Over here in the UK, back in the mid 80s, every teacher wanted their pupils to buy Buffets. Then in the early 90s it was Trevor James or nothing. Now for years it has been Yamaha or don`t bother to come to your next lesson. The funny thing is that the flutes really haven`t changed that much, if at all. My guess is that Jupiter is next in line for the limelight, though I desperately hope it will be Armstrong.

Liz

So are you guys saying don`t even bother buying it? Because i think we`re going fo it, but it`s going to be `my` flute, and my major intstruments are clarinet then tenor sax...i would only play it for fun, not for anything more than that...
My understanding though, is that Buffet does not currently make flutes, is that correct?

Completely false, unless they have stopped literally in the past year. New buffets are readily available in the UK.

Liz

Hmm...i searched both Giardinelli and Woodwind/Brasswind and neither had Buffet flutes...

You`d probably be surprised at how little the biggest names cross the Atlantic. Over here, we would be hard pressed to find Gemeinhardt, Armstrong, Artley and so on.

Liz