Most people are really only familiar with one of these two variants of E11 as it was they were the longest in production. At some point in production, the German made Buffet E11 was transitioned to silver plated keys, though I do not have the exact date for this transition. The original Buffet E11 was made in West Germany and was made with nickel plated keys. Sadly, there has been much misinformation as to what really was going on with the E11 out there that it has led me to write this post to try to help clear things up. As you can imagine, this can become quite confusing even for those “in the know”. Since 2008, there have been 4 separate versions of the E11 Bb clarinet. While these terms mean different things depending on who you asked, the simple fact was that the E11 was easy for any student to move to from their plastic student model (Buffet or not) and get a noticeably improved tone. However, in Europe, the clarinet was also known as a “Student Wood” model. The first model offered by the maker made from Grenadilla wood, this clarinet was commonly referred in the USA as Buffet’s “Intermediate” model.

One of the most popular models is the Buffet E11. From student to teacher, amateur to professional, almost every clarinet player has at some time played on a Buffet clarinet.

No name is more known in the clarinet world than Buffet. This post was last updated on Octoto add additional information on the newest versions of the E11 Clarinet – Dave Kessler

The Confusing History of the Buffet E11 Clarinet

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