{"id":17250,"date":"2010-02-27T12:50:39","date_gmt":"2010-02-27T20:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=17250"},"modified":"2024-05-07T10:59:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:59:45","slug":"the-tonal-colours-of-a-mad-meg-vs-a-1950-unlacquered-zephyr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2010\/the-tonal-colours-of-a-mad-meg-vs-a-1950-unlacquered-zephyr\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tonal Colours Of A Mad Meg Vs. A 1950 Unlacquered Zephyr"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I spent the afternoon and evening hanging out at my friend’s studio. He’s a pro player from Vancouver, who owns\u2014among other very cool things\u20142 Cannonball tenors. The first is a Silver Plated, Big Bell Stone Series. I’ve played this sax a number of times, and have always liked it. The second is a fairly recent acquisition, and was new me. It is also a Big Bell Stone Series, but is an unlacquered Mad Meg.<\/p>\n

\"Cannonball<\/a><\/p>\n

     Mad Meg T5  Source: Cannonballmusic.com<\/h6>\n

I usually don’t take a sax along when I go to Ray’s place, but this time I did. I took along my 1950, 307XXX Zephyr tenor. My Zeph is 95%+ unlacquered, but it lost its lacquer the natural the way: through 60 years of pro use.<\/p>\n

\"Right-Side\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I thought it would be interesting to play these 2 unlacquered horns side by side for a while to find out what they could do, and how they stacked up against each other.<\/p>\n

In total Ray and I spent about 4 hours in his studio playing sax. For the first 2 hours I played his while he played mine. And then I played mine for last 2 hours to really compare them properly.<\/p>\n

My set-up for this experiment was what I use on my Zephyr: My vintage Dukoff S7, a Rovner ligature, and a Fibracell 2 \u00bd tenor reed.<\/p>\n

The Cannonball is a beautiful horn with great ergos, has great projection, and rich, full sound. It can handle anything you throw at it, from the softest of subtones, to the most screaming of altissimos. It is extremely easy to play. I found you could jump from B3 to B1 in the blink of an eye with no difficulties whatsoever. (Remember I’m a vintage sax player, so I’m used to playing horns that require a little more effort.) In short: it’s a great horn that I certainly wouldn’t mind owning. Of the 2 Cannonballs that Ray owns, I prefer its sound over that of its Silver Plated, Stone Series cousin.<\/p>\n

However, compared to the 60 year old Zephyr, the unlacquered Cannonball is lacking a certain something <\/em>in its sound. That something is colour<\/em>, and by colour I am referring to overtones<\/em> or harmonics<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Since sound is rather hard to describe with words, I found a really good article by saxophonist Sue Terry<\/a>, on woodwind sound that likens sound to light, which might help people get their head around this concept.<\/p>\n

You’ve seen light through a prism, splitting into individual colors that we call a rainbow. The colors of the rainbow are a part of nature and will never change. Sound is also divided into frequencies, or vibrations\u2014just as light is. Any given tone has a specific frequency, and that frequency contains within it still other frequencies\u2014those of the overtone series. The overtone series is a rainbow made up of sound frequencies rather than light frequencies.<\/p>\n

Source: SBO Magazine October 1, 2002<\/a><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, the Zephyr has more overtones in its timbre than the Cannonball Mad Meg, which makes the 60 year old Zeph somewhat more complex sounding. Is it enough to be noticeable by the audience? I doubt it. In a room full of saxophone players you would get some debate going vis\u2013\u00e0\u2013vis the sound of each horn. However, put it in a band, amplify it, and crank up the sound via the sound board (the conditions that both Ray and I play in), and there’s not enough difference that it’s noticeable.<\/p>\n

However, as a recent experiment of mine with a non-musician friend has pointed out, if you play your saxophones with the same set-up, in sequence to a listener, they are able to detect the slight nuances of the horns. At least my friend was. And while not a musician, she is an avid lover of music.<\/p>\n

I must admit I do like the ergos of the Cannonball saxophones. But do I like them enough to trade off the richness of the tonal palette that I get from my Zephyr? No.<\/p>\n

Beyond the ergos, modern saxophones do have an ease of play to them that their vintage predecessors do not have. That is the primary reason that vintage saxophones are not recommended for beginning players.<\/p>\n

However, when an experienced saxophone player has the opportunity to play test a vintage horn\u00b9 that is top playing condition, they then have to make a choice: Do they want to trade off modern ergos, etc. for sound?<\/p>\n

I have yet to play a modern sax that matches any of my vintage saxes in the tonal complexity department. Even Gandalfe’s Reference 36, while close, was not quite as complex as my Mark VI.<\/p>\n

People much more knowledgeable than I about metallurgy, can debate whether or not metals age<\/em> over time, or through vibration. Or perhaps vintage horns were simply designed and constructed differently, and that causes vintage saxes to have more complex sounds than their modern counterparts.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you disagree completely with my thesis. Maybe you can’t hear a difference in the harmonics between vintage and new horns. Perhaps you think it’s all in my head. In that case, I hope you enjoy your new horn. There are some great ones out there.<\/p>\n

I know there are other people of the opinion that vintage saxophones are simply “not as good as” (whatever that means) modern saxophones, and that anyone who believes differently is simply wrong. (Those people are usually trying to sell us a new sax.)<\/p>\n

In the end each player needs to make an informed decision for themselves. There simply is no right or wrong answer.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

\u00b9 By vintage horn, I’m not referring to any old horn. I’m referring specifically to a pro model horn. I am also assuming that the sax is in no need of repair. Nada. Nothing.<\/p>\n

\n
…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span><\/div>\n
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Yesterday I spent the afternoon and evening hanging out at my friend’s studio. He’s a pro player from Vancouver, who owns\u2014among other very cool things\u20142 Cannonball …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[150,209,280,324,35,182,633,644,630,643,31,224],"class_list":["post-17250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tenor-saxophone","tag-american-saxophones","tag-asian-made-saxophones","tag-cannonball","tag-h-n-white","tag-king","tag-modern-saxophones","tag-musings","tag-photos","tag-tenor-saxophone","tag-vintage-horns","tag-vintage-sax","tag-zephyr"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t