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I dropped my sax ...

Gandalfe

Striving to play the changes in a melodic way.
Staff member
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I was notified that our principal saxophonist (in the WCB) wasn't going to make it to practice, so I pulled out my Selmer Ref 54 hummingbird to work on the lovely but gnarly alto sax solo in Armenian Dances. It's a 5/8 and 6/8 time signature. It counted 1-2-3, 4-5 and then 1-2, 3-4-5, alternating almost on whim and then a random 6/8 time and a couple of 3/8.

Checkout the at the 4:11 minute mark:


As I went to lower the case, my beautiful, perfect sax dropped about six inches onto a carpet. Oh nosssss! I picked it up and gave it a try, but the whole scale was wonky. Checking the keyworks I note that a couple of the bell pads are not closing and some of the linkage is bent. Sigh ...

So I am taking it to my fav tech today, dunno how much that will cost. Fortunately I had my wife's Ref 54 as a backup but imagine my surprise when I found that the inherent intonation on her instrument was *much* different than mine. And I'm going to be sharing a duet with an oboe. Zutt alors!

eng1.jpg
 
Dropping an instrument isn't ever good, hope it repairs well.
And as you said, switching to another instrument, even from the same manufacturer can be rather offsetting. I've been borrowing an R13 while my Selmer Series 9 has been getting a repad for the past few days, though thankfully it's ready now. The R13 is rather different intonationally than my Selmer, and is more resistant (not a factor I particularly like.) but still plays very well, it's just not what I'm used to playing every day.
 
Fortunately I had my wife's Ref 54 as a backup but imagine my surprise when I found that the inherent intonation on her instrument was *much* different than mine.

And as you said, switching to another instrument, even from the same manufacturer can be rather offsetting.
While I do tend to think that switching between manufacturers is going to be a bigger difference, something has to be said about switching from one handmade instrument to another from the same manufacturer. I've never really had much of an opportunity to test from the same manufacturer that much, other than on some Mark VIs -- and those could have been many, many years apart in their serial numbers. Ref 54 vs. Ref 54 is going to be a much smaller "age" range.

Someday, I'd really like it if I could say that I really love a specific make and model of something and I'm told that I have a choice of 50 and I could pick which one I like best.
 
That is one beautiful sax!!
I've always contemplated filling in the engraving with a black wax just to see what it looks like, or a silver wax (the same stuff they use on clarinet emblems - easily removeable).

Playing style and thus setup has a lot to do with how a horn plays.
If you are an aggressive player a friend's horn that plays very well for them could simply not work well for you. Or vice versa.
Stack height, spring tension, key fit (loose or tight), pad selection (hard, med or soft pads), etc can all impact how it plays for a particular player.
 
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