Thanks to milandro for putting up this saxontheweb link to a YouTube Video of the Chateauguay Tenors playing alto, c-melody, and tenor saxes, in an epic topic started by Captain Beeflat, a.k.a. Lewis – Snobbery associated with the C Melody. It’s quite unusual to so easily be able to compare the sound of a Conn C-Melody with a Buescher C-Melody, albeit in the hands of two slightly different style players – Al Mclean and Cameron Wallis.
Had initially been a post about the Conn C-Mel, but these sharp old eyes spotted that when the guy on the left stops playing his Conn C-Mel to switch to tenor (on which he has a remarkably similar style) – at around 2:15 the more aggressive alto player on the right switches to what looks suspiciously like a Buescher C-Mel. It’s too small to be a tenor – and you can occasionally glimpse the Buescher ‘man in the moon’ neck brace if you’ve quick reactions.
TWO C-Melody saxes in one clip, whatever next ? 
Can’t quite make out the mouthpieces yet, the Buescher seems to have a traditional ‘stock’ shape – could they be originals ?
Always been a source of amusement to me that the Conn C hangs comfortably low like a tenor – and usually sounds more like an alto – but all the rest of the C’s can lean more towards a tenor’ish sound (choosing my words carefully here… 
) but have an ‘up and close’ playing position that really only suits alto players in a neck brace 
Maybe that’s why most other C’s play more aggressively than the Conn’s - because of the discomfort and pain ? C’est la vie !
( with extracts from my saxontheweb comments )
Continue reading about Conn and Buescher C Melody saxes in action !
Thanks to Lewis for sending me this a while back, and for his suggestion to share it with you all.
This is Dean Hilson, from Oz, making it look oh so simple 
– he’s using a 10* Link, so please don’t try this on a Selmer C*…
I’ll leave the rest to Dean, remember, this is glissando’ing into the altissimo stratosphere !
I’ll just go and shoot my saxophones Beautiful – Thanks Dean !
Continue reading about Glissando – how to make it look easy…
Well, 75% of it, but it’s coming along nicely ! If ever I needed more proof that the front page of the blog is too "cluttered", with far too much info on one page, the fact that no-one seems to have noticed the curious link in the Blogroll titled provisional Orpheo review is probably proof enough…
So there it’s been for a while, and, now it’s probably at 75% complete, I’ll invite comments and criticism. Just remember that it has a few more changes planned, and the odd bits in grey (gray) are in need of expansion…
Because of the need for loads of pictures (more to come…) it’s better formatted as a separate – full width – web page, but comments gratefully (and graciously) accepted here. Enjoy – click here to read the review.
Click on any of the pictures to see them in greater detail !
Continue reading about At last, The Orpheo Tenor Sax Review …
By cunning use of (and recycling…) the head of a bicycle bell, here is the Mk II Pelham Pin Protector. The need for this was hastened by the fact that Lewis’ Buescher Big B was less than a snug fit in his Berkeley case. I know exactly the problem Lewis, I have/had the same problem with alto and tenor Berkeley cases !
I can’t help but imagine, that, when not in use, Lewis will park it on top of a conveniently close cymbal stand – thus giving the drummer the ability to make suitably subtle ‘dinging‘ noises throughout the set.
Hope you’ve applied for a patent, Lewis ? Looks great, I’ll bet it blends in well with the art-deco look of the Big B.
If anyone has been reading the comments in the Whatever happened to April ..?? post will have noticed that I recently purchased an Orpheo Pro Model 301-BB Series Tenor Sax from Noteworthy Music - listed at a BIN of $699, but I had my slightly cheeky offer of $500 accepted literally within minutes.
I was a little concerned to see that they then seemed to stop selling them, despite having shown “more than ten available” on the original eBay listing. However I feel even happier about it now, as the eBay listing has just reappeared with a higher BIN of $799 !
The only other misgivings I had about Noteworthy - apart from the sax being so cheap - was some bad comments/feedback about not being very quick to answer emails, and some confusion because their default checkout system (Kyozou) doesn’t seem to recognise non-USA buyers, necessitating a request for a manual PayPal invoice. When Kyozou started chasing me up for a payment that had already gone thro’ PayPal, I took the sensible route and made a quick telephone call to their Customer Service in San Antonio, Texas, where I instantly got thro’ to a very helpful lady called Gloria Carrasco.
I was quite impressed that Gloria recognised my name, and told me that she’d just processed my order, and that the sax would be shipped out today – even supplied the CP…US number from the Customs Form so that I could track it. So, I formally declare this saxophone topic now “open”, and will wait with eager anticipation until it arrives. You can follow the trials and tribulations here. Only downside is, Noteworthy being a business, I couldn’t really ask the normal ‘$50/gift’ question – but I’d like it to have a real valuation in case of problems – and I don’t mind paying the odd bit of duty/VAT, it’s not often I get stung. Over the years I seem to have been quite lucky… :) And, with the just-increased BIN of $799, my offer seems to have saved me $299, instead of my original $199 – it gets better by the day !
So I’ve been putting in a little time on my old Martin stencil tenor, and checking out which mouthpieces might suit it best. Probably a bit premature, as the old (30′s) Martin tenor still has mostly rivet pads, and the Orpheo (that’s “Or-fay-ohh“…) will probably naturally come up quite a bit brighter with modern reflectors. Annoying thing is that my old Couf J10*S – plus the usual Rico Royal #3 – now lets me hit altissimo G3 right on the button, solid as a rock, with the front-F + side-Bb fingering – do you think the old tenor senses something and has stopped playing ‘hard to get’ ? Or maybe grappling with C’s has made Bb tenor playing a doddle ? Whatever, the Coufs still seems to be giving my three Lawton’s a good run for their money – but let’s see how they all respond with the new sax, if and when… I have to say, feels good with a Bb tenor under my fingers again ! Keeping those fingers crossed, this is the bit I hate, the shipping time 
Whatever happened to April – seemed to have slipped by at breakneck speed without a single new post. So – just as a quick “catch-up”, here’s a few things that have changed, although I’ll probably expand on them in future posts.
My tenor Lawton 8*BB is back with me from its holiday in New Jersey (wish I’d gone there with it ), and is now in the fine company of an 8*B and an ebonite 8BB – click/hover here for a picture of them all – both recently acquired from cyber friends – many thanks to Jon and Andrew for very sensible prices. I’ve been checking them all out on my old $77 Martin stencil tenor, and I very much suspect that the Lawton 8BB ebonite will end up on the Aquilasax bare-brass C, deposing the current Couf J10*S. The brass 8*B will probably become the main tenor piece, leaving the 8*BB either free for re-sale or as an emergency paint-stripper…
All this ‘tenoring’ has raised my tenor hackles, and nice as my old Martin tenor is, I ‘ve just won a new Steve Goodson (stop that hissing…) Orpheo burnished brass tenor sax for a BIN offer of just $500 (that’s a total delivered cost, including shipping and UK VAT/duty, of less than 500 quid for a well equipped piece of kit. They are around eleven hundred pounds/quid (incl. shipping) if you buy them in the UK from Goodson’s UK outlet. All it needs now is for Noteworthy Musical to invoice me via Paypal, so that I can actually pay – but I guess things move slowly in Texas ?
That’s the tenor, on the left – looks wierd, that high-G rod going all the way up the back, past the knuckle-duster… Here is some more info about the Orpheo tenor – and a Youtube video – featuring Valdemort himself, with all the playing done by Derek Nash, from the UK….
What else ? Well, both my alto and tenor Tone Edge Links have gone to a very nice man in Southampton – thanks Roger. Plus I’ve been checking out ways of renovating those old ebonite mouthpieces – I can ‘almost’ get them to taste like new again ! And – this is partly why the posting hiatus – I’ve finally bitten the bullet and am clearing out all the junk from my house. Can’t live like Steptoe any more. So what I can’t sell on the website will go by eBay – although I’m amazed that (if you include Paypal fees) I can now look forward to losing 15% of the selling price as commission – or to the tip… Guess there’s no eBay/Paypal recession !
The C’s haven’t been neglected, still playing the Conn PanAm C-Sop and the bare-brass Aquilasax C. Anyway, hello again, and I look forward to posting a new topic at least every few days – watch this space. If I owe anyone an email response, apologies, they’ve been coming thick and fast – I’m wading thro’ those (as fast as I can go) as well – if you’re really desperate for a response, send it again so that it’s at the top of the pile…
Recent Comments