Agreed to a degree...but in case I wasn't clear in my opinion (and again I have refurbed around 50 Weltklangs...probably more, honestly)...
Oooh, the numbers game (again). Sure, I’ll play...
I’m not sure I’ve ever counted how many I’ve worked on – so let’s have a go, just for a laugh.
I was contracted to the ILEA to repair school instruments for at least ten years – and each week we’d pick up a vanload of instruments. Let’s be conservative and say that there were typically 5 Weltklangs in each delivery. Let’s call the school year 36 weeks.
That’s 5x36, which makes 180. Over ten years that's nigh on 2000 Weltklangs.
Add in the examples in private hands and the schools that carried on using my services after the ILEA folded – and then add on the 40 or so years since the ‘80s.
Goodness me.
There are several different levels of 'bad'...and a Welt, outside of their last decade of production, do not NEARLY graze the bottom...particularly when a professional has attended to them.
Actually they got a bit better towards the end of their run. I made that point before in another discussion but it doesn’t seem to have sunk in. And before that they were always bad – until you hit the ‘vintage’ models.
There is a difference between this distinction, and just flat out calling a brand a piece of crap.
...
Budget asians (talking $300-600 brand new saxes, emblazoned with so many ' brand names' I have lost track by now)....are, simply.... pieces of crap.
What was that about flat out calling a brand a piece of crap?
Let’s pick it apart. Late Weltklang vs a G4M.
The first thing people often say is that the Chinese horn is lightweight. In fact the Weltklangs were considerably lighter. Not much heavier than a 20 series Yamaha.
Score 1 for the G4M
Body build quality on both horns is sub-par, both sharing much the same issues.
Call that a draw.
Shedding parts. Common to both horns but rather less prevalent on the G4M. Chinese horns tend to pop guard stays – Weltklangs could shed pretty much anything at any time, especially the pillars that held the bars on which the stack keys were mounted. You can carry on playing a horn that's popped a guard stay but when the stacks start flopping around you're dead in the water.
Call that a win for the G4M.
Key quality on both horns have issues. The Weltklang had better finished barrel ends, but that’s about it. Remedial work is much harder on the Weltklang and the use of alloy rods was problematic due to wear.
Another win for the G4M.
Pads. This is a no-brainer. The Weltklang pads lasted forever but they were awful and extremely difficult to manipulate. And they made the keys feel squishy under the fingers.
A clear win for the G4M.
Ergonomics/feel. The Weltklang was designed as a student horn – it was never anything more than clunky. The G4M is a copy of an expensive pro horn.
Huge win for the G4M.
Playability. Chalk and cheese really. Even if the G4M had only 50% (it’s typically very much higher than that) of the playability of the horn it was copied from, it’s way ahead of the best the Weltklang can manage. Tuning’s better on the G4M too.
A slam-dunk to the G4M.
Economics. To get the best out of both horns you’re going to need to spend some money – and as it’s a used/new comparison it gets a bit complicated. Even more so if you consider that you can pick up a lightly-used G4M alto on eBay for a touch under £200 on any day of the week.
But in terms of what you get after you’ve spent money on tweaks/repairs the G4M still wins.
On the numbers alone it’s a 8 to 1 win for the G4M. Sure, you might argue a couple of points if you were that desperate but the Chinese horn is always going to kick the Weltklang in the nuts.
And if you wanted something rather better you’d only need to go as far as £450 and you’d be looking at a very tidy used 700 series Jupiter or a TJ Revolution – neither of which will likely need anything other than a cursory tweak or two, if that.
Based on all of the above there’s just no sense or logic in even thinking that a late model Weltklang is in any way a viable proposition.
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