{"id":46613,"date":"2018-01-31T11:35:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T19:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=46613"},"modified":"2024-06-25T09:07:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T16:07:37","slug":"the-olds-super-tenor-sax-is-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2018\/the-olds-super-tenor-sax-is-home\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olds Super tenor sax is home"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Olds Super tenor after pics & playing update (well sort of)<\/h3>\n
\"Olds<\/a>
Olds Super tenor #108X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In all the drama that has been going on around here regarding the transfer of my website, I have let many things slide. I have a long list of article topics that I have been wanting to write about, but couldn’t. For some of those articles I have contacts I have to follow-up with. They range from saxophone manufacturers to relatives of famous sax players.<\/p>\n

That all said, one topic I did manage to write occasionally about since October, was the Olds Super tenor sax that I bought from Chadd at WWS in Everett<\/a>.  Although Chadd usually sells his horns restored, he made an exception for me in this case, and I was able to buy this baby as it came into WWS\u2014mouldy pads, case, and all.<\/p>\n

As a matter of fact, this horn had so much mould and grunge growing on its pads, that when I played it for the first time at WWS, it pulled the high Eb tone hole chimney right off the body tube! I do believe that was a first at WWS…<\/p>\n

\"Olds<\/a>
Olds Super tenor #108X – Surprisingly enough, when the high Eb key was closed, the horn played no worse despite it clearly having a detached tone hole chimney.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I would be lying if I said saxophone lung<\/a> never crossed my mind as I play-tested the horn both at Chadd’s shop, and at home before it went in for its restoration.<\/p>\n

Although for me pulling up a tone hole chimney was not a deterrent, as I mentioned when I first wrote about<\/a> this rare horn, its initial lack of interesting tone was. (BTW, Chadd had that tone hole perfectly attached in less than 15 minutes. Today you can’t see that it was ever off the body.)<\/p>\n

That was then, this is now<\/h3>\n

It was 10 days ago that I met David at his shop to pick up my newest, and rarest, baby. I ended up getting it a bit earlier than planned because of a family emergency that required David to leave town for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

David asked me to pick up the horn; play it in more; and then bring it back when he returned from Switzerland. Normally he would have liked to have kept it for a few extra days and make more adjustments before sending it home again. However, circumstances being what they were, both of us felt better with the horn out of his shop and back where it belonged.<\/p>\n

My initial thoughts<\/h3>\n

Since neither of us knew what to expect from the rebuild, I brought a number of mouthpieces that had a wide variety of chambers. They included: a vintage HR Otto Link; a vintage gold-plated Wolf Tayne; a vintage HR piece that came with my Martin Handcraft\u2014a piece that has been so well used that the brand name has been rubbed of; and my usual vintage Dukoff S7 and D7* pieces.<\/p>\n

The Otto Link immediately made the horn sound like it was in a 1930s jazz band. The horn had a really old-time sound. I started playing a melody\u2014don’t ask me what it was, because I couldn’t tell you\u2014and I had such a strong sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu that I had to sit down. David and I joked about me having owned this horn before, because it was just such an authentic sound, and the feel of the horn just felt “right”.<\/p>\n

Right or not, I do not play in a 1930s nightclubs today, so I carried on trying my different pieces. The Wolf Tayne was awful-sounding on the Olds Super. When it came to my Dukoffs, I had to really fight the horn to not have it default into a 1930s sound again. Even with the S7, this vintage baby seemed to think it was in a speakeasy or cabaret. I had to fight to get a modern sound from it, but with a bit of coaxing, it was very possible.<\/p>\n

On the same night I got it back from David’s shop I took it to a rehearsal for a jazz combo I play in. Everyone really loved the tone of this unique and rare horn. The drummer\u2014who was subbing for us that night and who normally plays in a grunge band\u2014remarked that it didn’t have that the usual high-pitchy whine<\/em> he associates with modern saxophones. He really liked its sound.<\/p>\n

This is how I described the horn in an email to some saxophone-playing colleagues:<\/p>\n