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Noblet Bass

pete

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
Someone's on vacation... That's the only way he would have time to look at saxy pics on the 'Net. :p :-D

We know things cost more in Europe, so perhaps that explains the price. It is a tad on the high side for the current market. Saxquest sold one of these in similar condition (alright, not as minty--provided the one in France is not a relac) in December 2008, for $5048. At least I think it's similar. It was a Beaugnier-stencilled Vito, but I didn't do the side by side careful comparison of the pics. I'll leave that to the man with the neuro problem who doesn't have the eye pain. I'll just go take my Rx now... :cry:
 
Better living through modern pharmacology.

Yah. I didn't comment on the price and it is a bit steep. I can say that prices for any sax do appear to be a bit higher in Europe than the US/Canada.
 
Merlin said:
Absolutely the worst bass I've ever played was a Noblet. YMMV...
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That's why I select vintage horns by pedigree. If I can't try an instrument, then I read up on what the community is saying and go with the brand that generates the most info about great intonation and sound. That's how and why I got my Buescher bass sax and my Conn C soprano sax. It's not a perfect system, but I have purchased only one dog in 6 years (of my return to music performance). Even then, it was a sweet SDA that just couldn't be made right by the techs that I had at the time and I made money on it when I sold it.
 
The thing about Noblet is that they were supposed to be "Intermediate" horns: Leblanc was the high end and Vito was the low end, however there was an awful lot of crossover. I also no longer think that Beaugnier made "all" the good Leblanc-family saxophones, but I'm not clear on the relationships. Yet.

As said, I think it's a pretty horn. Then again, pretty != good, in all cases. I can also say that if I was going to plop $8K (US) on a horn, I'd want to playtest it. Heavily.
 
Gandalfe said:
If I can't try an instrument, then I read up on what the community is saying and go with the brand that generates the most info about great intonation and sound.
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Some things you can read are just facts but I noticed that a lot of times, when I try an instrument I previously only read about, my opinion is very different than what I read.
 
That's why they're opinions :).

Someone once said that reviews are useless. I really don't think so, because of a couple logic constructs: if person A likes a horn and person A also likes other horns I like, I'll accept that person A's reviews are good. And/or: person A is an acknowledged expert in his field and if he says that a horn is petrified dinosaur snot, I'll accept his review as on-the-mark.

Remember, lots of people liked Ford Pintos, too.

I also think if a reviewer says that a particular horn has certain manufacturing defects, I'll take notice, provided that the "defects" are actual defects, not something like, "I don't like the horn because they didn't include a three-ring adjustable straphook."

However, this is also just an opinion :).
 
clarnibass said:
Some things you can read are just facts but I noticed that a lot of times, when I try an instrument I previously only read about, my opinion is very different than what I read.
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True enough, which means it's helpful to know where a reviewer is coming from. The guy that loves vintage to the exclusion of all modern instruments might like an old beater more than I would ever get used to. Same with repair types. But that's why I weight the reviews based on what I know about the reviewer.
 
And, sometimes the reviewer/endorser is being paid to favor a particular line...

I have hated every Leblanc bass clarinet that I have ever played, period end of sentence. The funky register mechanism, the fork Eb that was both muffled and very adjustment sensitive, the feel of the keywork and the angle of the neck all combined to make Noblet basses very unpleasant to play.

And, nobody ain't payin' me nothing...
 
pete said:
That's why they're opinions :).

Someone once said that reviews are useless. I really don't think so, because of a couple logic constructs: if person A likes a horn and person A also likes other horns I like, I'll accept that person A's reviews are good. And/or: person A is an acknowledged expert in his field and if he says that a horn is petrified dinosaur snot, I'll accept his review as on-the-mark.
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Those are the type of reviews I meant. Just random reviews where you don't know anything about the reviewer are a different issue. I found that even if someone tends to agree with me a lot I will find that when it comes to subjective things, such as an instrument tone, etc. it's possible to completely disagree, which happened many times.

That's why the reviews on my website for example are pretty focused on facts and technical things. Then there is sort of a disclaimer that comments about tone and other things that are personal and subjective. I think a good reviewer should be able to seperate their subjective opinion of an objective evaluation, even for things like tone (e.g. I can say that an instrument has a great tone but that I personally don't like).

The most extreme example I remember was an instrument with nothing but huge praises by many players, some supoposedly very respected professional players. When I got the change to play and throughly check the instrument I found so many problems I couldn't believe that dozens of people could possibly miss them... since none of them was ever mentioned... but they have.
 
SOTSDO said:
And, sometimes the reviewer/endorser is being paid to favor a particular line...

I have hated every Leblanc bass clarinet that I have ever played, period end of sentence. The funky register mechanism, the fork Eb that was both muffled and very adjustment sensitive, the feel of the keywork and the angle of the neck all combined to make Noblet basses very unpleasant to play.

And, nobody ain't payin' me nothing...
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I've played all of one Vito bass clarinet and I didn't like it, either.

I've played many Yamaha saxophones and clarinets and I've liked them all -- although I know that clarnibass doesn't like how the student saxophones are constructed.
 
I've had a few Vito basses in my hands, and they played and felt like a funky Bundy/Selmer USA bass. Nothing to write home about, and you still had the whole Leblanc keywork vibe to deal with.

I've never seen the likes of a student level horn from the Buffet folks. Did such a thing ever exist?
 
I've never seen a Bundy bass. If there was one, you're talking 1920's vintage. Vito-branded bass? Maybe, but I haven't seen one of those, either.

There are now student horns from Buffet. They're not made by Buffet, but still ....

The Buffet S2 was supposed to be a student/intermediate horn. You also had scads of the Evette-Schaeffer labeled horns after 1950ish that were sometimes made by Buffet, sometimes made in Italy and some that seemed to look an awful lot like a Malerne.
 
SOTSDO said:
I've had a few Vito basses in my hands, and they played and felt like a funky Bundy/Selmer USA bass. Nothing to write home about, and you still had the whole Leblanc keywork vibe to deal with.

I've never seen the likes of a student level horn from the Buffet folks. Did such a thing ever exist?
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pete said:
I've never seen a Bundy bass. If there was one, you're talking 1920's vintage. Vito-branded bass? Maybe, but I haven't seen one of those, either.

There are now student horns from Buffet. They're not made by Buffet, but still ....

The Buffet S2 was supposed to be a student/intermediate horn. You also had scads of the Evette-Schaeffer labeled horns after 1950ish that were sometimes made by Buffet, sometimes made in Italy and some that seemed to look an awful lot like a Malerne.
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I'm confused. Are you 2 talking about bass clarinets? Or are you talking about bass saxophones? :confused: Help me out here guys. My Topamaxed brain just can't keep up! :-x
 
Well, I'm talking bass sax. That's what this thread is about, at least.

Although, I do have a short attention ... oooh. Shiny!
 
This Noblet bass sax used to be mine, it was build in the seventies by Beaugnier, which was bought out by Leblanc at that time, and Noblet was just a brand name from Leblanc (the original factory in La Couture Boussey" was run by Mr Noblet, who married his daughter to a Mr Leblanc and Vito was the US importer of the Leblanc products, later Vito bought out Leblanc France)
this bass was a wonderful instrument, right in tune, good optimized mechanic, french short wrap
This horn was sold again this morning for 6370 USD
 
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