New Yamaha YCL-CSGIII… move over Buffet R13?

Sam, Woodwind Dept: Yamaha Pro Clarinets have always sold steadily but we must be under no illusions, if you look at the stats for clarinet sales (over the last 10 years) around the £2000 mark the Buffet R13 stands head and shoulders above the rest, with its brother the Buffet RC usually coming in 2nd place. Of course I refer to Dawkes Music stats primarily and there could be historic reasons for this R13 loyalty from customers and teachers, BUT, if you compare the UK wide sales stats on Buffet vs Yamaha vs Selmer vs Leblanc (there are a couple of others but the numbers sold are so insignificant they’re not worth mentioning) the numbers of Buffet sold are miles ahead of the others.  Before I get to the NEW Yamaha CSGIII it’s good to think about this R13 phenomenon because we must understand why it’s kept it’s place at the top of the tree, no other instrument I can think of has done this. For example Yamaha YAS62 Alto Saxes used to outsell others by far but the last 10 years has seen the rise of Yanagisawa, Mauriat, Cannonball etc and the 62 dominance has been hit. There aren’t any flutes that consistently outperform others by such a margin either, nor Trumpet, or Trombone etc etc.

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