How About A Ready To Assembly Saxophone? Would You Buy One?

Piyapat Thanyakij, the man who brought us the injection-molded, Vibratosax, has a new project on the horizon. According to an article published today in the Bangkok Post, Piyapat is currently developing a “Build Your Own Sax”.

This “Build Your Own Sax” happens to be of the tenor variety, and will come with an assembly kit—and ostensibly a lower price since you will be doing the work yourself. Piyapat is hoping to unveil the prototype in mid-2012.

Source: Vibratosax’s Album on photobucket.com

This BYOS comes on the heels of Vibratosax’s other 2 models: the A1, a polycarbonate/ABS combination (starting at 9,000 Thai Baht, or $288.28 US), and the A1S (11,000 Thai Baht, or $352.34 US), which is made solely with polycarbonate. These polycarbonate horns were inspired by Piyapat’s dream of increasing the number of saxophone players in Thailand.

Apparently saxophone players in Thailand are few and far between. With the price of conventional saxophones beyond the means of many people, and the weight of the horn being a further barrier to attracting players, Piyapat Thanyakij decided to invest some serious money into developing an alternative… Enter Vibratosax.

It’s amazing what 20 million Thai Baht—which xe.com calculates to be $639,898 US at the time of writing—will get you. Piyapat went about designing the world’s first injection-molded saxophone. With a weight of only 800 grams, compared to a conventional alto’s approximate 2.8 Kilograms, the Vibratosax is a mere flyweight.

Here are some numbers that might interest you. According to the article in the Bangkok Post:

With brass saxophones, 60-70% of the cost is from skilled labour, so Mr Piyapat had to find a new cost-efficient production method to reduce that figure to 30-40%.

“Welders who make 300,000-baht [$9,604.61 US] saxophones have been welding for as many as 50 years, while 30,000-baht [$960.46 US] instruments might be made by welders with only three years’ experience,” he said.

Polycarbonate is used, with the plastic pellets bought from Bayer after joint development with that company.

The pellets are placed into a mould injector, and the final product is composed of more than 300 components. Enough plastic to make 500 instruments can be injected in two weeks, but assembly takes much longer.

…Mr Piyapat hopes to expand daily assembly from five or six now to 10 within three months, which will necessitate doubling the number of staff to 20.

Vibrato has a current backlog of 50 instruments. The lead time is three weeks, and the maximum order allowed is 50 saxes.

There are now 50 distributors worldwide, with most of the products exported to Europe, the US and Japan.

Source: The joy of sax: Instrument maker toots his horn with first-in-the-world plastic prototypes, Bangkok Post

All the sales that Vibratosax has had must have been quite the inspiration for Piyapat. Besides the BYOS tenor on the horizon, there is a new alto in the works. The A1SG is destined to become Vibratorsax’s flagship horn. With 24 karat gold plating on the brass, gold coloured pads, and glass elements, it will be interesting to see what a 30,000 Thai Baht Vibratosax looks, plays, and sounds like.

When it comes to the sound of the Vibratosax in general, here is what Piyapat says:

We don’t expect it to sound like a 300,000-baht saxophone, but we do want people to listen to it and say it sounds like a saxophone…

Source: The joy of sax: Instrument maker toots his horn with first-in-the-world plastic prototypes, Bangkok Post

And you don’t have to go far on the Net to find lots of evidence that he did accomplish his goal. Well done sir. Well done.

Personally, I’m not sold on the BYOS tenor, but I’m sure there are lots of DIY’ers who’ll be chomping at the bit for that one. Now, if it came in pink, maybe… 😉