Auguste Buffet Bb Albert system clarinet

Here's a fantastic instrument.  I picked this up locally from someone who's father played it a lot.  It was in pretty good shape, well looked after, but did have a repaired crack through the barrel and a bell crack as well.
I did a clean/oil/adjust service on the instrument,  replacing a few pads along the way.  The repaired barrel crack was still leaking slightly so I had to fill that in too.
I was excited to give this a play, and WOW!  I'd have to say this was one of the nicest old Bb Albert's I've every played!  And that is saying a alot as I've worked on/played many many old Albert clarinets.

Apparently Frank Holton contracted with Auguste Buffet to make clarinets for them, see the bell.
Auguste Buffet was a relative of the "other", more famous Buffet of the Buffet Crampon firm.
These aren't as well known, and the only other one I've had was a later Boehm system clarinet that was just "so-so". 
This clarinet was very well made and is just a joy to play.  It stacks up to ANY old Albert, including those from Buffet Crampon and Selmer...........so keep your eyes peeled for these,  they're gems.

Selmer Bundy baritone sax!

I wish I had a better pic of this horn,  I took one quick shot in the basement studio to send to a friend who'd been looking for a baritone,  he ended up buying it quickly so now its gone!

This is a 60's, maybe 70's, Selmer Bundy baritone.   To do a quick recap of what was going on with the post Selmer buyout of the Buescher company....Selmer bought out Buescher in the early 60's and used the tooling/design of the last Buescher Aristocrats for their "Bundy" student line.   By the time Buescher folded the Aristocrat was no longer a pro model,  but really a bit nicer than something you'd call a student model too.  
So this horn is pretty much identical to the later run Buescher Aristocrat.   Its a well designed horn,  sturdy enough to hold up to the torture of student usage, but plays and sounds great.

This horn in particular came to me VERY much beat.  Dents everywhere, the bottom bow in particular was dented at least 1/3 of the way in.  Luckily it was fairly straight otherwise.   I refurbished the horn completely, dent work (what I could reach....without un-soldering the neck I couldn't reach all the dents),  clean/oil/adjust,  literally half the pads were replaced along with pretty much all the adjustment material.
Also this horn came without a case and I had to track one down....luckily a nice chap on a sax forum gave me a great deal on a solid case.
I was very excited to play test this horn and was not let down....the HUGE bell makes for a monster low end and it really plays well through the entire range.   I think with the right mouthpiece (I don't have many to choose from) this horn could be all you would need until you decide to plunk down serious $$ on an old 12M or Selmer or whatever else you decide is "the one".

I've written about the older Bundy's before, I've had them all through here.  Once again, these are solid, well designed horns!  

Evette & Schaeffer tenor sax, French

A few posts back I highlighted the alto version of this horn, here's a tenor, and its a good one.
These were made for Buffet by the workshop of Robert Malerne, likely in the 60's, and they are very nice sounding instruments.  This one in particular is very clean, most of the lacquer is present,  really no dings.
I'm impressed by these,  the build quality is very solid, they look good, the key work is pretty comfy (like any horn you just have to get used to the ergos), but the sound really takes the cake........these horns sound fantastic!
This instrument was fairly picky about mouthpiece, the only ones it like were old French mouthpieces!  For sure it did not like modern mouthpieces.  I'm thinking it mostly has to do with chamber size, it probably likes a fairly open chamber. 
I liked this horn so much I picked up an other one!