Don’t forget about the forum…

Not wishing to steal one of Gandalfe’s posts (click here for his blog) or his thunder - but having examined the instrument, I have concluded that from the overall dimensions, and the fact that the bottom leg of the ‘bell B’ guard is well above the joint, that this is in fact a  giant C-Melody sax…

Such taste, no other sax would do for such a prestigious display ! I’d hate to have to repad that one…  Although it’s hinted that it’s a “double e-flat contrabass sax” - I recon from the date (1924) and overall build, it’s a “C-Sub-Contra-Melody“

The young lady’s legs (not that I was staring…) do look decidedly two dimensional, and she’s going to need a longer neck strap . I think she is somewhat ’staged’- I can’t imagine anyone going on tip-toe on top of a pair of steps that high - think what ‘Health & Safety’ and ‘The Nanny State’ would have to say about that in 2009.

That’s made my day, the biggest C-Melody in the world. Any idea of shipping costs to the UK ?  Thanks to Gandalfe, and Terry Hummer, wonderful find - not, as you’d expect, from a musical paper, but from Popular Mechanics - June 1924.

Came across this on YouTube.  Don’t know who the player is, seems like it’s a Lyon & Healy C-Melody, probably stencilled by Martin - the video makes it hard to identify, but I think I got a glimpse of a Martin’ish bow fin, and the bell B tone-hole looks a bit bevelled.  Beautifully solid sound !  Mouthpiece looks to be relatively modern, probably tenor, playing starts about 30 seconds in.

Thanks, randynkaisy - whoever you are…

So there I was, wondering what had happened to January and most of February ?  I’ve now got so many things on my mental 2009 ‘to-do’ list that my brain has overflowed, so I guess I’d better hustle before March goes the same way…

First essential, thanks to rapidly diminishing returns on savings, and horrendously battered private pension fund, courtesy of the world’s relentlessly spiraling financial markets, is to raise some dosh pretty sharpish. (never thought I’d be glad that my 65′th birthday - and therefore state pension - is only three and a bit years away…)

So, the last week has been spent looking at what instruments I can sell, whilst still obviously retaining more than enough to keep me happy, and taking a few pictures to update the saxes-for-sale page - and of course for the unavoidable eBay listings.   In the course of these feverish activities I came across a lacquered King C-Melody that I’d bought because I really liked the look of it.  Click on the picture (on the right) for loads more pictures !

I’ve always been a sucker for dark vintage lacquer, but this particular horn has such a mix of colours, rubbed (as it is) to bare brass on the neck and most of the key faces.  Very unlike the quite uniform dark bronze of my favourite Martin C-Melody, which obviously isn’t going.  The updating is far from finished, probably never will be, but the lacquer King is one saxophone that I sincerely hope no-one will ever be interested in buying.  If it plays as great as it looks - well…

As you can see by the picture, the bare-brass Aquilasax C  has arrived, and is in use…  I was so keen to try the sax out (about ten seconds after it had arrived, fastest unpack ever) but the new ‘tenor’ style C neck had a slight mechanical problem, so I impatiently tried it with the ‘alto’ style neck that was also in the case.  Click on the picture for a better view of the sax.

But (surprise, surprise…) when I went back to the tenor neck, having later easily rectified the problem, I found that the alto neck suited me so much better.  Very little appreciable difference in sound quality and blowing characteristics between them, so it’s really all down to comfort and ‘feel’. 

You might remember back-away when I commented that the new Aquilasax C ‘tenor’ neck was shorter than the standard C-Mel ‘tenor’ neck - because the body tube had to be lengthened to accommodate the high F#, so the neck was then proportionally shortened to maintain the same overall ‘tube’ length ?

Well, so it is with the new Aquilasax C ‘alto’ style neck - it’s considerably shorter than the original 20’s Conn C-Mel straight neck, in fact only about an inch longer than a standard Eb alto neck, and with none of the microtuner gubbins that also seemed to affect harmonics.  So, using the new C straight/alto neck  doesn’t appreciably push the sax ‘out and away’ - the real hate I had with the 20’s straight/alto-neck Conn C’s, having quite short arms !  Instead, on the Aquilasax C, it drops the sax down from a normal C ‘close and high’, to a ‘close and lower’ position - quite tenor’ish, despite looking like an alto on steroids, still with all the keys in easy reach, plus the neck doesn’t get in the way when reading music - and it’s so comfortable - as you can see, nothing is strained…  (except maybe the listening ears )

The sling can now also be appreciably looser/lower, and can usefully be slipped on/off the neck without disturbing the setting.  Going back again to the Aquilasax C tenor style neck re-confirmed all my initial findings, so I sharply returned it to the case and went back to the alto-style neck.  I’m probably the last person to readily admit this, but (certainly at this moment in time) I actually prefer playing with the Aquilasax C ‘alto’ neck.  How strange, I really didn’t expect that !   More observations later, as I get to know the sax…  Thanks Steve, much as I like my original lacquer C - I just love this new bare-brass one !

Glad to see that Nathan Haines is still playing that Conn C-Melody sax, rumour has it that he’s forsaken tenor sax to make the Conn ‘C’ - along with soprano sax and flute - part of his normal playing arsenal.  There’s certainly no mistaking that neck angle or length !

At one time Nathan was using a Link mouthpiece - I assume alto, as it was bored out to fit - but he may well now be using an alto Berg Larsen, which is the mouthpiece used to make that sound sample on Steve’s Aquilasax website.

Here’s a short clip from an instrumental version of the title track on Nathan’s 2008 Album Right Now  - could easily be a C-Melody sax.  << Click on the arrow (left) to hear a clip…

Just a quick post to ask all the C-Wise Men out there if they’ve ever seen side E and C keys bent as in the picture, or if they’ve ever modified their own saxes in a similar - but possibly not quite as extreme - fashion ?

This is from a Martin C-Melody saxophone currently on ebay - the seller ( a very friendly Kim ) told me “They must have been this way when I got it “.  There seems to be no other damage (if that’s what it is…) to the sax, so it seems a bit unlikely that these keys could have been accidentally bent without affecting anything else.

Almost makes me want to bend a couple of mine just to see how it plays ! 

It’s about time I started fixing C-Mels again, arthritis is (touch wood) not too fierce at the moment, and an enquiry about this  Buescher C Melody (click here for more pics)  made me think that maybe this old lady deserves better than languishing unloved in a case for years to come.  This was a bit of an impulse buy, driven I suspect by the rose-gold (well, copper, but more of that later…) bell.

Paid rather more for her than I usually do (back when the pound-dollar conversion rate was more favourable) and the sax is in not-as-good a condition as I expected.  Not that I was misled in any way by the seller - such is eBay, some I’ve won, some I’ve lost, and this is definitely leaning towards the losing side as she is at the moment.  But the sax has great potential.

The sales enquiry about her seems to have fallen thro’ - but I did come across a genuine Ferrees ’snap-in’ pad set recently when I was having one of my infrequent tidy-ups, so I’ll have a go at the sax over the next few months.  A couple of the rods seem a little reluctant to play ball, and all of the rollers likewise seem settled in for the duration (reluctant to turn…) plus the octave ‘pin’ is bent from less than perfect packing for it’s last transatlantic adventure - but, apart from that, it’s relatively dent free, and with that lovely rose gold bell wash.

As Cybersax rightly comments, “…it’s a ‘rose gold’ effect, used primarily by Buescher on its silver plated saxes made after about 1925. ‘Rose gold’ is gorgeous, but really not gold at all. The ‘rose gold’ effect is achieved by laying on a copper wash (thin layer of copper plating) instead of a 24K gold wash…” 

I’ve a few other C-Melody saxophones I need to tweak and say ‘farewell ‘ to this year (and clarinets, and alto’s and mouthpieces etc. ) - but this Buescher will be a full overhaul.  I’ll keep the comments coming as it proceeds, but someone will have a lovely horn at the end of the day.  The pictures really don’t do the bell-wash justice, it is a glorious bonus !

 Over the years I’ve received hundreds of emails about C-Melody saxophones, some from genuinely interested owner/players, and an awful lot from people just looking to identify/value/repair/sell ones they’ve recently acquired or been handed down in the family. I do, in all honesty, try to reply to most of them (usually in some detail, on an individual level, and trying to avoid the ’standard’ quick reply) - but it’s getting to be a very time consuming task, pleasurable tho’ it usually is, and a few emails do regrettably fall ‘between the cracks’ as the inbox starts creaking again.

To anyone still waiting for a response, I do sincerely apologise - try resending the email, you may be luckier this time   Of course I often point people to the website Q&A - and other online resources. Useful then to find this  ebay guide to C-melody Saxophones, written by rdkeeney, obviously a C enthusiast.

It’s amazing how very much the same information in one article, but presented in a slightly different way to others, can often seem to answer the same old questions more concisely… Thanks for that, rdkeeney, could it be that we’ve met before, on some distant forum, maybe under different names ?

To quote from Youtube - ” Yo! Joe Albano here. Just finished overhauling a conn c mel for myself. Got a metal aquilasax c mel piece that actually plays well. Sound is on the darker side…kinda linkish. Here’s a little sound test for y’all !  “  

Bit of a vocal pre-amble, playing starts at about three minutes in, it’s a good solid tone.

  To compare Joe’s C-Melody sound with his normal sax ( and/or bass clarinet ? ) sound, click here for Joe’s MySpace page - check out ‘tripolar‘