The Sax-Stick from SaxRax

How the simple Sax-Stick is saving me right now

I am in the middle of a musical that requires my bari skills, but unfortunately my old injuries are catching up with me. I have suffered from chronic back pain ever since a career-ending ambulance call back when I was in my 20s. The pain used to be really bad, but then I developed a neurological condition and was started on medication for that.

Sadly however, my back injury didn’t just go away. I just didn’t feel the deterioration in my spine thanks to the cocktail of Rx. my neurologist has me on. Fast forward 10 years to last month, when I injured my back just taking 4 horns to my tech. It was then that my doc informed me just how bad my spine is, and that I will need surgery.

As I sat there absorbing the news; when she told me I shouldn’t carry anything heavy; and I should have others carry my sax cases for me—I guess she never thought about the fact that I would have to wear the horn around my neck or on a harness for hours at time, thus still compressing my spine—I thought forward to this musical, and how I was going to get through these 3+ hours of bari playing per night.

Then I remembered something I saw a while ago from the good people at SaxRax. I remembered that they made a product for bari players: a peg of sorts.

I did a bit of research, and realized that there were two versions of the Sax-Stick. One for seated players, the other for standing ones.

I reached out to my bass sax-playing buddy Paul Coats (North and South American distributor for SaxRax), and asked him to do me a huge favour. I asked if he had any in stock, and if he could ship one to me immediately. Since we were less than a month away from the production starting, and I now play a low A horn in the big band that is providing the sound track for the musical, finding an alternative to wearing the Couf’s weight was critical.

Paul was great and immediately stepped up. He shipped out the Sax-stick to me, and I had it in only a few days.

I’ve had the Sax-Stick for a couple of weeks now, and overall it does exactly what it is supposed to do. It takes the weight off my spine, and yes, I likely feel less pain from playing bari for 3 hours a night.

I must admit it does take some getting used to. After playing saxophone in a certain way for 30 years, playing it like this does require a slight change in head space.

In case you’re wondering how it works, here’s the instructional video from SaxRax that describes the Sax-Stick’s assembly and use:

I have noticed a few things with it, but those might be the way I’ve set it up, or the types of chairs I’m using.

The first is that the stool I use in my studio is almost too high for the Sax-Stick. Even lowered to its lowest level—23″, or 58.5 cm—this stool requires me to extend the Sax-Stick up to its highest level. I have taller stools in my studio, which I can no longer use when playing bari with the Sax-Stick.

Putting the Sax-Stick on and off the bari bell takes some space. If you’re in cramped quarters, such as a sax section in a big band, then you have to be careful not to take out the person next to you when fitting the stick on, or taking it off your horn.

Speaking of big bands, many sections in swing orchestras stand up when playing solis. The band I play in doesn’t, but if it did, that would require some pre-planning.

The last thing that I’ve noticed with the Sax-Stick is that I bumped the left side of the bari’s bow against the chair leg in the theatre a couple of times the first night we were in there. As I said at the outset, that might have to do with the way I have the stick set up, or it could have to do with the design of the chairs themselves.

Since I’m very gentle with my gear I didn’t do any damage to the bari, but I easily could have dinged the bow if I had been more forceful. To ensure my bari doesn’t get damaged, I cut a piece of tubular foam pipe insulation and placed it over the chair’s metal leg. Problem solved.

I am very thankful to SaxRax for designing the Sax-Stick. It is so simple, I can’t imagine why no one has thought of it before. Bari players, both with and without physical problems, should see this as a leap forward in a better, and an ergonomically safer way to play their big horns.

Overall I give the Sax-Stick from SaxRax 4/5 stars. If you’re a bari player, you really should think of getting one. To find out more about all of SaxRax’s great products, check out the company’s North American distribution arm.