Were any Buffet SDA's high pitch horns?

[CK]

Hi,
were any Buffet SDA's high pitch horns? I ask because my 1967 SDA tenor plays all notes very sharp, regardless of how far back I pull the mouthpiece. I read that Buffet did make some high pitch horns for the European market, and now I'm concerned that mine may be one. There is only a simple serial number, 13998, and no other marks or letters to indicate anything. It plays very sharp when I play it and also when my teacher plays it with his mouth pieces, so it's a pretty consistant thing. I'm frustrated about this because it's a great sounding and playing horn, and the intonation is very good relative to itself, but all notes play extreemly sharp, too sharp to play with another instrument. Does anyone know about determining if an SDA is a high pitched horn? It's hard to find info on this.

Any help is greately appreciated.
Thanks,
Cliff

[singlereed]

Do not confuse 'high pitch' with the seriously unusable high pich horns of early 1900's - AFAIK most recent Buffets have been made to tune at A=442 Hz (like their clarinets) - there has been endless debate here about whether or not this small difference from the USA convention of A=440Hz is significant or not. I have used several A=442 Hz horns and never had a problem, and legions of US orchestral pros are doing the same with their clarinets etc. I would be happy to be able to play A to within 2 Hz :lol:

[Jerry K.]

I have a '62 SDA Alto and it plays very well in tune with the MPC pushed in fairly far. I am using a Meyer 6 and pushed in to where probably 3/8" of cork is exposed.

[CK]

Thanks for the replies and info. This helps. I wish it was playing an A at 442 Hz, but depending on how far back the mouthpiece is, on an electronic tuner it shows an A between 446-450hz. I know this sounds improbable, but it does it when I play it and also when my teacher plays it with his mouthpieces. We've even tried pulling the neck out from the body a bit, and it's still too sharp to play with other standard pitch instruments. There's no signs of any modifactions to the neck or neck collar on the body, the neck is the correct neck, etc. It's a fantastic horn, and the intonation to itself is very good, but the overall pitch is wacked. I'll take it in to a tech, but does this sound familiar to anyone?

[Fred]

Do you have an opportunity to try some different necks? Could your neck have been shortened?

[singlereed]

I think you should take it to a tech, whilst some mouthpieces can give you intonation problems at one end or other of the range, I wouldn't expect anything to send it that far out of tune - although I have found some mouthpieces that are just far too short for my horn and practically unusable. Still, if you have a reasonably standard mouthpiece, an SDA should work well with it, they were always well made horns.

[saxcurious]

Try your tuner with another sax, perhaps it needs recalibration; low battery can cause problems too.