In September, I wrote an article about the Nova Wooden Saxophone. At the time, the company had quite an expansive website, full of photos, as well as a sound and video galleries.
Unfortunately, this website is now gone, but these saxophones appear to be on eBay currently, in both alto and tenor versions. However, the name Nova, doesn’t appear anywhere in these eBay ads.
Source: Photobucket.com
This is how the seller describes these saxophones:
Thai saxophone is made by wood that is high quality.
You don’t worry about it because it has special property; durability, steady and is not moistness.
Its unique is red wood that is so beautiful.
It has punctiliously procedure for production.
Its tune is not different general saxophone.. It’s 1.8 kg [1.2 kg for the alto] approximately that is lighter than saxophone that is made by metal and it is comfortable for transfer.
It is suitable for your collection.
Source: Photobucket.com
Many of the photos, and 1 of the video clips, are the same as those that appeared on the Nova Wooden Saxophone site. It is unclear however, if these saxes currently on eBay are indeed made by the same people that made the Nova horns. It is all rather confusing actually. Honestly, the workmanship doesn’t quite look the same.
There are currently a number of auctions for these saxophones. There are 10 altos available. Each is can be bought outright for the Buy it Now Price of $799.00, in an sale that ends in January. If you don’t want to pay full price, you can make an offer on one of these altos.
Now, if you’d like to take your chance in an auction, you can do that too. The auction for a wooden alto sax ends on December 27. At the time of writing there were 4 bids on this horn, with the high bid being $102.50
If on the other hand, you’re looking for a wooden tenor saxophone, they’ve got you covered there too. There are also 10 tenors available. The Buy It Now price for one of those is $899.00. If you’d like to bid in an auction, that one runs until December 27 as well. At the time of writing there were 8 bids on the tenor, with the high bid being $152.50.
Update: In the actual auctions of the alto & tenor saxophones, both horns did sell. The alto received a total of 28 bids, and sold for $488.00. The tenor on the other hand, received only 19 bids, and sold for $510.00.
Actually, I had written about the Saxwood brand of wooden saxophones in October 2008. In that article I also mentioned the Nova brand, although at that time they were not named that. At the time they were just being sold as alto models through the Thaitradder.com website. (Where they are still listed interestingly enough, for $350.00 US.)
The links that my SOTW friend Milandro pointed to on YouTube, were for the horrible sounding Saxwood brand. Their construction is much different, and appears much more primitive, than those that were sold under the Nova name (and appear on Thaitradder.com).
If you check out the pics from the eBay ads, those appear to be the Nova brand saxes, and not the Saxwood at all. Check the bell to body bracing, and the finishing.
Also, one of the videos that eBay uses, is the same video that is on the Thaitradder.com video. This horn actually sounds good in that Thaitradder video.
Actually, when I first saw the wooden saxes on eBay, I thought it was a 3rd brand of wooden sax. I was almost disappointed to find out it was really the Nova brand, without the name attached.
In light of the website and name vanishing, I wonder if the company got sold. Perhaps these eBay horns are being made by another person, hence a slight difference in the craftsmanship.
Here is the thread in question:
http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=127881
Milandro’s post seems the relevant one here:
——————————————–
yes came up many times………more importatly how does it play? VERY BADLY!
Alto Saxwood played by Steve Grant
Alto Saxwood played by Robi Jazz Perhaps
Baritone Saxwood played by Steve Grant
Soprano Saxwood played by Robi Jazz Perhaps
Alto Saxwood played by Robi Jazz Perhaps
Alto Saxwood
It is expensive for a useless simulacrum of a saxophone
this is the site
http://www.saxwood.net/
these are more videos
http://saxwood.net/video/index.php
We have been discussing these on SOTW (I linked them over to the older article just yesterday), and the comments there seemed to indicate that the few people who have gotten their hands on these found them either very leaky or completely unplayable. From the sound of it, the wood body is not the problem, but the wood keys are. If it had metal keys (Grafton or Alpha style), it might well be a usable horn.