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NEW Buffet Crampon Senzo Red Brass Professional Model Alto Saxophone
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Product ID: CopperBuffetSenzoAlto
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The SENZO is an exquisite display of French craftsmanship. It showcases a copper body tube and neck with gold lacquer keys and key guards. The design also features a BC “resonance cavity” on the back of the neck, high F# key, improved left hand cluster design for the bell keys and adjustable palm keys.
The SENZO was designed to meet the needs of a player looking for meticulous control over intonation. It has a rich resonating color with an extremely strong focus at its core. The highly efficient key work allows for a maximum level of facility while it also provides a high level of ease and comfort. Please see our video of Jeff Collins playing this instrument on Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise".
The SENZO is a top of the line professional alto designed to fit the high musical demands of a professional saxophonist.
Read on for more details of the SENZO and how it has come to be: You will see in this that NO aspect of the SENZO project was left to chance. The final result is the matriculation of a massive current research effort along with knowledge gained from past research with the Buffet Super Dynaction, but more precisely the Buffet S1 and S3 Prestige models, along with collaboration from retired Buffet factory employees and a true quest for perfection. In this sense the tradition continues. It also shows how the collaboration between Buffet and Keilwerth has been perfectly balanced to enhance both brands without taking away from the identity of either.
The design team for the SENZO is entirely French so the saxophone is conceptually 100% Buffet-Crampon in Paris. The bell, body tube and bow are all manufactured at Buffet Crampon in Paris. The bell is hand hammered in the old school tradition. Its then precisely formed under high water pressure. The body tube is the S3 Prestige. Its design was pioneered by retired craftsman, Ghislain Rousseau, a trainee of Robert Carrée who made the Dynaction and who designed the S1 with Daniel Deffayet. His work in global volume of the saxophone was revolutionary. Anyone who has played a Buffet S3 Prestige knows how good that saxophone was. The bow is an entirely new design using the S1 as a starting point focusing on intonation and response adjustments that included both tone hole placements & diameters and precisely determined inner tube dimensional adjustments. The "secret" to the extremely fluid response as well as highly accurate intonation can be revealed in the bore of the bow, entrance/exit diameters, and the length of the bell. The neck is also made in Paris and is crucial. The cavity on the regular neck is smaller than the S3, which gives more flexibility, especially in the low register. "Amplitude" necks are an acoustic option with a bigger cavity that gives more projection (this is actually the original S3 neck).
The SENZO keywork is manufactured at Keilwerth in Germany. The keywork is similar to the CX90 in regard to the pivoting B/Bb table mechanism which was inspired by the Buffet S1 and S3 Prestige saxophones. The assembly, full key fitting, padding and precise adjustment is also done in Germany on the JK Production line. The assembly process is highly scrutinized from the precision of each tone hole and pad cup to the fitting of every post and key. Having highly skilled workers already in place at Keilwerth makes this an ideal situation.
When the instruments reach Paris they undergo a second round of fine tuning and are individually and extensively play tested by Fabrice Moretti, one of the most highly regarded saxophone instructors in the traditional school of saxophone in Paris and a former student of Daniel Deffayet. This is not simply a "pass through" step. Fabrice is an extremely fine tuned player and is painfully critical. He is indiscriminate in his analysis and under ZERO pressure from Buffet to get instruments out the door. His job is quality control and Buffet takes that very seriously. I can tell you from speaking extensively with Al Maniscalco at Buffet Group USA, who is a top rate professional player in his own right and has witnessed this play test step first hand, that instruments get sent back regularly for adjustment and some are even out right rejected by Fabrice that may otherwise seem utterly perfect to us mere mortals. Instruments that are destined for North America then also go through a third round of extensive play testing in Jacksonville by Matt Vance and precision adjustment by Bruce Marking.
