My post from SOTW, in 2006. Just replace "finish" with "resonator."
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This is an interesting little mental exercise:
There are many, many folks out there that insist, despite evidence to the contrary, that the finish on a saxophone affects the tone.
This is a wholly unwinnable argument. It's also completely indefeatable.
Let me tell you why, by describing how to make a scientific test of what finish makes the best tone:
First, let me say that Vintage saxophones are not included in this conversation. Why? Several reasons:
* There is a good deal of evidence that gold plated and/or "virtuoso deluxe" finished vintage horns were subjected to better quality control and were made with a good deal more care than were introductory models.
* Manufacturing technique has changed a lot since 1843: most horns up until the 1920's were completely hand built and assembled. That means that there was significant variation between vintage horns.
* It is virtually impossible to get several horns of the same vintage model within a few serial numbers in the same condition.
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So, how to set up the experiment according to the Scientific Method:
* Obtain several horns of the same make and model within a couple serial numbers in different finishes. A good example is the Keilwerth SX90R because there are a LOT of finishes available.
* Decide what pitch and configuration you wish to test: let's just say "regular tenor".
* Have a single technician that's very well known for setting up that make/model of horn well look at each of the horns and make sure they're all set up EXACLY the same: pads, key height, spring tension. Everything. The works.
Here, however, we have to introduce the first flaw into this test: the technician may (consciously or not) set up, say, the gold plated model with more care than the lacquer model. That introduces an extra variable that we don't want into this equation, but I'm not aware of any technician out there that could set up a horn blind and while wearing gloves (you don't want the tech to FEEL the difference between the finishes).
* You then have to get several people that play close to stock as possible Keilwerth SX90R's that have as close to each other's playing ability as possible -- preferably folks that are professional musicians trained by the same person.
Here's the second flaw in our testing: you really can't make a robot to play the horn, without throwing more millions of dollars at this problem. If you took in "people off the street" to play the horn, they might have vastly different playing styles and/or just not like playing the SX90.
* You then have to make sure that the tester uses the SAME mouthpiece, reed and ligature setup.
Here's another flaw: how many people use, say, a Berg Larsen Hard Rubber 110/0 Duckbill, a #3 VanDoren Modele Jazz reed and a Rovner ligature? I thought so. You need to standardize this and probably the best solution is to make sure your musicians play on the stock Keilwerth mouthpiece, with the stock ligature and with the reeds that come with the horn. If you change ANY of this, you're adding variables.
Additionally, if you "force" people to use a specific setup, you're going to add another variable: some people just don't sound good on a specific type of mouthpiece/lig/reed combination, so you need to make sure you're players really, really like whatever setup you're testing and have played on it for a considerable time.
* You also need some impartial observers to listen to the test. They need to at least like the sound of the saxophone.
This really isn't a flaw, but this isn't scientific: we're trying to determine if a player's tone sounds different based on the finish. What better way to do that than to have others listen too?
* You need the science boys with their oscillioscopes or whatever they want to use to measure the sound.
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The test itself.
* Blindfold your musician and observer. Stick 'em into two soundproof rooms: one for the performer to play in and one for the listener to listen in.
* Hand the player a sax. Tell him to play an arpeggio and some scales. Maybe some long tones.
This introduces another flaw: unless the saxophone is played EXACTLY the same way by every performer, the test is basically worthless: I can play scales that sound so lush and full, you'll weep. Other performers might play them dry and boring. Once again, this would be resolved by our million dollar sax playing robot.
* Ask the musician and observer, seperately, to describe the sound (have a checklist with definitions, or some such). Ask them to guess the finish of the saxophone being played.
* Have the scientist boys look at the oscilliscopes and have them mark everything down.
* Have the players and observers run through the 20 finishes, TWICE. Alphabetically and then reverse alpha. Then mix 'em up. You'll get lots of data that could be charted as:
LACQUER FINISH. Player 1: describes as "dry", thinks finish is "nickel". Observer 1: describes as "mellow", thinks finish is "gold". Scientist reading: baseline.
SILVER PLATE FINISH. Player 1: describes as "dry", thinks finish is "gold". Observer 1: describes as "dry", thinks finish is "gold". Scientist reading: baseline.
Additionally, to make this a bit more of a "double blind" test, you should repeat the test with the performers and observers NOT blindfolded. You'll get some interesting data.
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It is possible, but unlikely, that you'll find that a certain finish does impact the sound. What does this prove? One thing and one thing only: that the finish makes a difference on only that make and model of saxophone with that mouthpiece, ligature and reed setup. You would then have to extend the test to other pitches and configurations of the same make and model and then you'd have to go to different mouthpiece ligature and reed setups.
You might be able to prove that, yes, finish makes a difference for that make and model of horn, only. And to do that you'd have to try thousands of variations, which would be something like:
Number of Finishes x Number of Pitch Configurations (i.e. "Straight tenor") x Number of Mouthpieces x Number of Mouthpiece Facings x Number of Mouthpiece Materials x Number of Reeds x Number of Reed Strengths x Number of Ligatures
The number is astronomical. And this is just for ONE make and model.
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Conclusioning:
This demonstrates why I could say something like, "If you put a raisin in your mouthpiece, it'll help you play altissimo." While it might help ME play altissimo on my Yamaha 52 baritone with my Sigurd Rascher mouthpiece and #3 VanDoren Modele Jazz reeds, there's no particular reason why it'd work on your horn -- and you can't prove that I'm a nutcase to do this on my horn with my setup and how I play, because it might work great on my horn and setup.
There have been a variety of studies on this (reference, for instance,
http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin...p/t-28758.html and
http://iwk.mdw.ac.at/Forschung/engli...inortner_e.htm). These tests are generally done on non-conical-bore woodwinds or brasswinds, because they're much easier to test. Some tests "conclude" that there is a difference in tone, some don't. None of them are as comprehensive as the test I mention above.
One of A. Sax's ideas behind the saxophone is that if you have the bore proportions right, a sax will sound like a sax, regardless of the material. This has been "proven" by the existence of bamboo and wooden saxophone variants and non metallic saxophones, like the Grafton Acrylic Alto.
There have also been a few tests regarding just taking a metal and then giving it a finish to try to find out what, if anything, happens to the metal itself. The results of this are hazy, at best and there doesn't appear to be any application of this to how a saxophone built out of this material would sound.
Something also needs to be mentioned about "cryogenic treatments". This is supposed to "removes residual and compressive stresses in the [building of a] saxophone by allowing the brass to return to its optimum structure". Again, experts are divided on whether this even does anything to the metal (see
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Uploads/cryo.html and
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.c...=112765&page=8), much less than whether it impacts the tone of a saxophone.
This brings it down to: the thing that has the MOST impact on a saxophone's sound is YOU, the player. Maybe 20% of that sound can be attributed to the mouthpiece setup and the horn.
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OVERALL CONCLUSION: The best you could prove is that resonator A on specific model of sax -- with a specific serial number range and a specific finish, too, by the way -- behaves a certain way. If you use a specific mouthpiece and the original neck. There are just waaaay too many variables.