Perhaps this is a rhetorical question, but why are sax players so obsessed with cheap gear?
Source: eBay.com
I don’t believe for a minute that all sax players suffer from this obsession, but if you spend any time at all on the what is likely the largest collection of saxophone players online, Sax On The Web (SOTW), you will not find a subforum that doesn’t have multiple threads discussing cheap gear. Why is that?
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
I get that not everybody has 5K+ to throw at a horn, but there seems to be a sense of pride, and something like bragging rights, when players buy these ultra cheap horns that they claim “play well”. For example, this morning I happened across a thread by a player who recently bought a Hawk tenor, which was supposed to be good. Yah, I’m sure it is… until it isn’t…
I’m sorry, but almost any sax that costs $400 or less is going to junk. Sorry, it is. But hey, if you want to play a piece a junk, go right ahead. But understand that when you take your $400 or less piece of junk—um, I mean saxophone—to the shop to get it worked on because bits have fallen off (which they will because of the use of substandard glue, or screws that are too short), or you need a pad job, or regulation, don’t be pissed at your tech if he/she tells you that it’s not worth working on.
Most techs charge what, $40 to $80 an hour? Now how many hours of work will it take before the cost of the repairs will exceed the original cost of the horn. The answer, obviously, is not many. That’s why a tech will tell the owner of cheap gear like this that their horn is not worth working on. It’s literally throwing away good money after bad.
Sometimes players can get lucky and find good, cheap gear, like I did when I found a late-model 6M for just over $400 in a pawnshop. But that’s the exception, not the rule.
As American business magnate, investor and philanthropist, Warren Buffett, so eloquently said: Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
There is just not a lot of value in this cheap gear. Period. I just don’t get the badge of honour stuff that people like to wear from acquiring cheap gear.
@Theo: :roflmao: That’s damn funny, and a perfect example of how not everything “vintage” is good. Sometimes things are just “old”. (I suspect the key was made and the horn assembled after too many glasses of wine over lunch. 😈 ) The question is, just how many poor techs saw this horn in its nearly 100 years. I’m guessing not many. I suspect this poor horn got bought and tossed into a closet and forgotten about. So what are you going to do with it now? It would be a shame to make a lamp out of it.
@ Mal-2: I agree that eBay is the worst place to buy a horn from—but if you want to claim bragging rights for cheap gear, it’s the best.
@ Issac: Welcome to my site. Thanks for your input. I wholeheartedly agree with you. You echo the words of my tech David Gsponer. He and I had exactly the same exchange in November 2012 with regards to baritone saxophones.
The instrument was bought by a Catholic village band named Cecilia.
Usually they watch all their instruments methodically.
They are not known for having good techs, usually someone as the village horse smith.
After replacing 10 of the 20 leather pads with Dutch wooden saxophone pads the instruments
plays again. With a Runyon Quantum mouthpiece (no inlay) you can play very soft music on it.
It reminds my of the words of Berlioz describing the first saxophone.
A sound on the edge of silence.
I thought that the reduced key set would give it a more trumpet like sound.
Wrong again.
The wood pads and silicone kit seems a bit odd on an old instrument.
But it is 100% in line with the present (Dutch) thoughts on restoration:
It is completely reversible
Only restored where necessary
Does not damage the instrument
The repaired area is clearly visible
With this mouthpiece full on the cork it plays A=440 Hz, with some minor tuning issues.
It is still possible that it is a A=435Hz saxophone.
The only difficult playing thing is the double octave key.
Next week I try my Vogelwerth mouthpiece on it.
It was made in the same period, as an Adolphe Sax copy.
Luthier in France mentioned that Vogelwerth worked with Pellison and I think Guennot on saxophones.
Than I have a 1924 copy of an 1850 saxophone to play authentic music from before 1900.
Mayby I have to go the Dinant this summer.
:saxplayer: :cheers: :cheers:
life is strange :cuckoo: :roflmao:
Some small corrections: It is a Vogelweith mouthpiece and Guennot is not involved.
It has a better tuning on this saxophone compared to the quantum.
Now it works out as a A=435 Hz tuned instrument.
I am a tech and I fight this stuff all the time. Even many companies that rent instruments to the kids rent out pieces of junk. Most of my job is helping parents find a good quality horn for a cheaper price. Recently though the epidemic of cheap horns has grown and grown, which makes the newer generation not want to play anymore because they think they are bad players when in reality most of the time it is the horn they are playing on. its sad!
Cheap isn’t always a problem, so much as cheap and unseen. fleaBay is always going to be a crapshoot at any price. If you can play it or at least look at and hold it, your odds of success go up accordingly.
I’ve gotten good $200 horns (a Yamaha-made Vito alto, for example) and mediocre ones (an Orpheo with dark brown epoxy lacquer that had a thin sound up high on the horn). A Buescher True Tone C-mel that cost me $200 took a moderate amount of work to bring into shape, arguably more than the instrument was worth, but it is a better horn in every way except ergonomics than the Aquilasax I paid $900 for. (Both bought online and unseen, I might add.)
The occurrence of this obsession is a measure of how long it takes to acquire taste and good sense.
Also it protects us from lots of taste and senseless saxophone playing.
Recently a sculptor gave me such a piece of junk from 1924.
It is a basic 20 keys low B Evette and Schaeffer that looks fantastic for such an age.
One of the keys was badly made in the factory.
Which made it an unplayable piece of antique junk.
The correction took 10 minutes.
This saxophone kept lots of people from playing the last 91 years.
Maybe it was a bad thing to repair it.
It was made for clarinet sized pads 2.8-3.0 mm thick and re padded with 4.2 mm pads.
It must have seen some techs of equal quality.
:sol: :shit: :sol: :shit: :sol: :shit: