While surfing the net, I came across the strange instrument called the Conn-O-Sax. There is one on Ebay right now that can be bought for the princely sum of $100,000 (I kid NOT). Conn made these to spur sales that had been slumpin. Seems they made them from 1915 to 1925, and they believed it [Continue]

AKG has a new mic out, the AKG C214. From the press release: Based on one of the most successful studio mics released by AKG, the C 414 model, and using all the feedback that during 30 years they have received from its users (maybe they could release a new version earlier, but…), AKG has [Continue]

After the previous article on a new line of Plastic Saxophones, lets examine a previous, and famous, attempt at making such an instrument. Here is Peter King playing one the legendary Grafton Alto Sax played by Charlie Parker. Here is a great review of the Grafton Alto Sax. [Continue]

There seems to be a resurgence in this idea. Enter the Vibrotosax. To create more saxophonist in the world is our prime concern. Our designer team need to accomplish 3 objectives….Design a saxophone that everyone can afford, provide a standard fingering configuration and producce a solid saxophone sound. The solution: to replace brass with [Continue]

When I was in college, I heard the story of Siguard Rascher having a keyless saxophone. Basically, a conical tube in the shape of a sax. Mr. Rascher was reported to be able to play anything on it. Well, looks like you can actually get one and try to be a virtuoso like Siguard Rascher. [Continue]

Yamaha has a new thing out, called the Tenori Media artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha have collaborated to design a new digital musical instrument for the 21st century, TENORI-ON. A 16×16 matrix of LED switches allows everyone to play music intuitively, creating a “visible music” interface. Check out a video of it Create Digital Music [Continue]

I recently bought a Roland KC 550. It is a keyboard amp, but you can use it for many other things. I bought it for some gigs this summer. It has an XLR microphone input, plus 3 additional inputs. Easily enough to share with a keyboard player, your EWI and your Sax mic. We touched [Continue]

About 3 or so years ago, I totally got into the iPod. At first, I didn’t see the point. I do now. Having thousands or tens of thousands of songs available, instantly, is amazing. You can call up an exercise you record in Band in a Box, or perhaps a Cannonball solo, and drag it [Continue]

Anonymous Coward writes “I want to cultivate an Earl Bostic sound on the Alto–big and blowsy. (Right now it’s small and lousy.) What equipment did he use to get that unmistakeable Bostic sound?” Thinking that strickly equipment will help you is a flaw. He could have probably used anything and still sounded like Earl Bostic. [Continue]

jazzboy writes “So which one is the best Selmer or Yamaha? I have played sax for around 1 year and a half. 2 months ago I got a Yamaha yts-575 allegro tenor sax. After a few weeks me and my dad went searching on the internet and found a much better horn at the same [Continue]

harry63 writes “Has anyone had the chance to play on the the Accent Brand of instruments? From what I have been told by salesman is that this brand was started by a group of music teachers to create high quality instruments at lower prices for school music programs. Each instrument is a “knock-off” of professional [Continue]

jason writes “I recently was interested in a pro sax that I would stick with through high school and most of my colledge years as well. I must have played on over 25 horns! Finally I came at last to a particular series 3 (alto. I warmed up and played a few licks. I fell [Continue]

SaxMan0216 writes “I got a Selmer Series III alto sax 13 months ago (coincidentally, exactly 13 months today). Since getting it, I’ve been getting more and more used to it’s pitch centers and tonal differences. I changed from a Selmer C* mouthpiece to a Selmer C, I use Vandoren #3s for concert playing and Vandoren [Continue]

I somehow get a Yamaha Magazine called “Backstage Pass”. It’s usually not a good read, however the Spring 2003 issue has some interesting stuff in it. There is a good article about Mark Rivera, Frankie Perez, Jeff Coffin, Lennie Niehaus, and the venerable Phil Woods. All these guys are Yamaha artists, and the articles are [Continue]

per-misaer writes “I bought this Keilwerth sx90r tenor a year and a half ago. It sounds fine, and after some minor adjustments the action is fine to. One annoying problem remains though. The sticky pads! I was told that the stickynes had something to do with the pads beeing impregnated, and that the problem would [Continue]