A Custom-Made Alto Inspired By Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s Manzello

I received an email yesterday from a fellow in Europe, who thought I might like to see this strange custom-made sax. If he hadn’t sent me the link the German eBay auction, I surely would have missed it. And this is just too interesting to have missed. Thanks S.G.!

     Source: u-musikdotus

Yup, you’re looking at this right. It’s a chopped down alto saxophone, keyed to low C. This custom horn was modified by the seller. The horn is described in both German and English. I’ll just provide you with the English version.

THIS IS A UNIQUE INSTRUMENT:

I developed a prototype of a Children´s saxophone further:

– I had two side keys added so that it is playable from Low C – High F# and of course all flageoletts [I have no idea what he means with this.]

– A silver plated original Buffet Grampon neck was customized to fit which improved sound and resonance

– all keyguards etc that were unnecessary were removed to make the sax as light as possible – it weighs a bit over 900 Gramms now.

The body of the instrument is gold plated, it has a G# key that also serves as a C#/C trill.

The instrument is tuned in Eb like a regular alto and plays from low C-F#(…)

I used it often in concerts during the last year, often as a solo-instrument, here is a sound example of a live recording:

http://soundcloud.com/steinmetzmusik/over-the-rainbow-harold-arlen

I called this sax in remembrance to Rahsaan Roland Kirk “MANZELLO” and used it with a Babbitt C-Melody mouthpiece and Bass-Clarinet reeds (mpc not included!),

It also works with good intonation with standard alto mpcs.

It ships in a real historic wooden case that needs some work for daily use but protects very well.

The instrument is fully playable but keep in mind THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL SAX, I am lacking time and financial resources to make this a real professional instrument –

I would exchange the experimental side keys for newly designed ones with new toneholes, would have the body maybe again gold plated, tweak and improve the mechanic etc.).

I hope this goes to someone who really enjoys this special sound and instrument and maybe invests in it…

Many thanks for your interest and have a great musical day!

I guess he received quite a few questions, because he followed up the ad with the following. (I underlined the English in the text).:

Am 06.08.12 hat der Verkäufer die folgenden Angaben hinzugefügt:

Vielen Dank für das Interesse! Hier ist noch ein Soundfile von einer kürzlichen Studioaufnahme mit dem Manzello: http://soundcloud.com/steinmetzmusik/bach-choral-improv-manzello Zu einigen Fragen die ich erhalten habe: 1) YES, GOLD PLATED (neck silver plated) NOT gold laquered (vergoldet, nicht lackiert) 2) Das Saxophon war als Proptotyp für die Musikmesse in Frankfurt für ein Kindersaxophon verwendet worden vor meinen Modifikationen (it was a prototype for the Frankfurt music fair BEFORE my modifications listed above). 3) Es ist inspieirt von Peter Jessen´s G-Mezzo-Soprano und spielt sich natürlich auch gut mit einem Alto-Mundstück. Durch den verkürzten Korpus geht aber auch ein C-Melody Mundstück!

A gold-plated, custom horn, with a silver plated Buffet neck, inspired by Peter Jessen’s G-Mezzo soprano. All this built on the framework of a prototype children’s saxophone.

  Source: u-musikdotus

I’ve featured smaller, student saxes in this blog before. Most notably this little pink gem by Alpha Sax, that I wrote about on November 9, 2009.

However, as the seller points out, this sax started out as a prototype for student horn before he made the modifications. Interesting. I wonder who made it? The bell is interesting.

Now, if you like to have the weirdest saxophones, or the one-offs, then this Peter Jessen-inspired, tribute to Kirk’s Manzello, might appeal to you. If it does, then you have until August 12 to get your bids in. At the time of writing there was 1 bid of €250.00 on this curious horn. eBay estimates this to be $310.33 US.