Dee Dee

Hello !

Does anyone have any information on Buffet Crampon trumpets? I have not been able to find out much about them, I can only assume they are rare. My uncle who has played the trumpet for probably 50 years sent my son one when my son said he wanted to learn how to play. We pretty much keep it locked up and only let him play it on special occasions because we are not sure of its monetary worth. Sentimentally it is worth alot !

My son is playing a Holton trumpet for lessons and band at school but I'm thinking of trading it in for a Jupiter which my son (he is 11) seemed to really like. Any options on this would be welcome !

Thank you in advance...this is my first post.

Dee

Gaucho Viejo

Hi:

When I was 12 my father did some research on pro-level trumpets and settled, on the advice of a local big-band director, upon a Buffet-Crampon trumpet. He gave it to me for my 12th birthday and, to this day, that was my favorite and most memorable birthday (I'm 53 now so we're talking about 1968). I used it all through High School, took it on a Rotary exchange to Argentina for a year, took it to college and played it at church at Christmas and Easter while my kids were growing up. Fast forward to five years ago and I'm teaching High School and think to myself it might be a nice gesture if I were to loan this prized horn to the school so a less fortunate student could learn on a quality instrument. Two years later I've moved on from education and when I try to retrieve my Buffet trumpet the student has graduated and, apparently, felt it was his to keep (though what he really did was deny ever having used it). Shortly after that my father found he had cancer, died quite shortly thereafter, and I started really wanting this memento of this great man. Knowing I wasn't going to get that one back I started doing some research on what it was and who had made it and how I might find its replacement and . . . I have become sort of an expert about Buffet Crampon trumpets. That's a lot of background you probably didn't need but it was cathartic for me so, thanks for listening.

If what you have is similar, at all, to mine it was my discovery after contacting Buffet Crampon and Zig Kanstul and posting pleas for information on this site and the other one that the trumpet was made by Buffet Crampon in their Paris factory (not what we call a stencil - manufactured by some major outlet like Olds or Conn and Buffet's name engraved upon it). Buffet, shortly after this trumpet's development formed an association with Doc Severinsen to develop what was to be his "perfect" trumpet (Zig Kanstul was wrapped up in there somewhere) - that horn was called the "Destino" and is very well thought of in the trumpet community. I kinda think the horn you and I are talking about was what attracted Doc to Buffet Crampon in the first place as, just prior to that (and to this day) they were devoted, almost entirely, to producing reed instruments of extremely high quality. I can't think of any other reason Doc would have pursued a clarinet-maker to develop his prototype unless he had seen an example of their brass work that sparked his interest. During my research period one of this forum's contributors noted that he had one of these he'd be willing to sell to me and we made a deal. I have some photos I'd be willing to email you (I can't figure out how to post them on here) and you can verify that we're talking about the same thing. If you go to Dillon Music's website and scroll down through their used trumpets you'll usually see a couple of examples for sale - most often with prices of about $695 on them (I paid $1,000 for mine but it was pretty much in mint condition). I've also seen references on the Rudy Muck website to these being very similar to some of his work (at least the early examples of the BC trumpets). Anyway . . . if this helps at all I'm glad. What you have is a fine trumpet and it sounds like you are, maybe, as fond of yours as I was of mine. If there are any questions I can answer (I've probably raised more than I've answered, already) don't hesitate to PM me or just pose them on this thread.

Tim

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