Through the years, I’ve collected a fair number of vintage saxophones. I like the sound of the sax, and I like the intricacy of the engineering. It’s also fascinating how the sound of the sax has evolved over the years, and playing saxes that were made in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s feels like getting a window into times gone by in a very special way.
John Coltrane on tenor sax, with his signature song ‘Giant Steps’. Coltrane played a Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone, one of the most iconic of saxophones for most of his career. In his earlier days he used a Selmer Balanced Action (SBA). His favourite mouthpiece seems to have been an Otto Link Tonemaster (5*).
One of the few live video recording of Charlie Parker: Hot House Live (Bebop). Charlie played a King Super 20, probably with his white Brilhart Tonalin Streamline mouthpiece.
Having recently upgraded to Cubase AI 10 I have been pulling my hair out since I could not get any input to register. Long story short, after trying out different port mappings and swapping in a different interface, I finally found that this behaviour is caused by the microphone security settings. If you run into this problem, make sure that Cubase is allowed to access the microphone, since without it you will get no input from an interface at all.
To check, go to ‘Preferences’ – ‘Microphone’ – ensure that Cubase has a tick in front of it.
This gallery contains 6 photos.
This is a very playable old sax from the 1920’s, which comes in handy if you don’t want to bother with transposing on sight. Serial number 798XX, which puts its date of manufacture in 1921. Straight neck, split bell keys, rolled tome … Continue reading
This gallery contains 8 photos.
Here’s a beautiful, satin gold plated Holton alto, serial 188xx (1925, see this Holton Serial Chart). Eb above serial number, L.P. below. Floral design engraving. Opposing bell keys, and has the extra keys the Holton’s are known for (C-vent), and has … Continue reading
Here’s a few hints that may be useful to get a good sound when rcording a saxophone. I’ve been using Cubase for a long lime now, starting with LE4 and recently moving on to LE5. I use a very simple but excellent USB DAC interface, the Jam by Apogee, directly into my Macbook Pro, using a Sure SM58 microphone through a basic mixer, the Behringer Eurorack MXB1002. The microphone could do with an upgrade alright, but for my purposes the results are fine. I use inserts in Cubase to get the sound just right:
This gallery contains 8 photos.
My latest project is a The Martin Tenor saxophone from 1951, serial number 174XXX. It appears to be an older relacquer, looks very good, and has a fabulous sound. I decided to send it to the Tech to have it … Continue reading
This gallery contains 9 photos.
Not vintage by a long stretch yet, but here’s some pictures of my daily driver – really like this one for its reliability, flexibility, ergonomics and tone. 2005 Yamaha Custom 82Z. Haven’t found the perfect mouthpiece for it yet, does … Continue reading
This gallery contains 7 photos.
Found these pictures of one of my old saxes that I sold on, unfortunately – the engineering on this one was fantastic, very sturdy, elegant construction. Pictures are not great, I regret that I did not take some after the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 8 photos.
Some 10 years ago I got my hands on a badly abused ‘The Indiana by Martin’, which I repaired – the posts were pressed into the body quite badly, and he straightened out the tube for me. It turned out … Continue reading