- Messages
- 337
- Location
- Santa Cruz, CA
This is genuinely a desperate (not that desperate, but at least some desperation) seeking of insight and opinion.
For around 20 years, I've wondered what the deal was with these "Heimer" saxophones I'd see on eBay and online that looked like they might be SML "stencils" -- I can tell you now, finally, thanks to Harmonicaboy (a saxforum avatar), that they are not "stencils" per se -- they do not play like "SML-lite," and the execution says to me that the company that made the Bestler I have in hand is not the same as the company that made SML -- but I always wondered what the story with them was, even beyond that. Clearly, they were either made with SML parts (bought by someone, tooled, assembled not by SML) or some company bought the tooling and began to manufacture saxophones with that tooling.
"Harmonicaboy," the owner's saxforum avatar, having seen a thread from years and years ago, sent me a "Bestler" alto that is in that vein -- looks exactly like a Heimer -- having decided he didn't want it and having seen some old internet forum threads I participated on, noting my interest.
He sent me his, asking only that I share my findings with others, and (I think) do something useful with the material, like recycle it in some way, if the saxophone sucked.
I finally had time to day to give it some service so I could play it.
This is pretty brief, but if it was me, and someone else playing, I could extract a lot from this clip. Because it's me, I can't.
I wonder what you all hear and conclude, viewing/listening to this.
I will say, in advance of you listening, and hopefully commenting, that what I hear from the clip is very different from what I felt playing.
I will make a longer post about this on the same Instagram account later, but I mounted this there because it's the easiest way right now to mount a clip over 25 megs.
Instagram
For around 20 years, I've wondered what the deal was with these "Heimer" saxophones I'd see on eBay and online that looked like they might be SML "stencils" -- I can tell you now, finally, thanks to Harmonicaboy (a saxforum avatar), that they are not "stencils" per se -- they do not play like "SML-lite," and the execution says to me that the company that made the Bestler I have in hand is not the same as the company that made SML -- but I always wondered what the story with them was, even beyond that. Clearly, they were either made with SML parts (bought by someone, tooled, assembled not by SML) or some company bought the tooling and began to manufacture saxophones with that tooling.
"Harmonicaboy," the owner's saxforum avatar, having seen a thread from years and years ago, sent me a "Bestler" alto that is in that vein -- looks exactly like a Heimer -- having decided he didn't want it and having seen some old internet forum threads I participated on, noting my interest.
He sent me his, asking only that I share my findings with others, and (I think) do something useful with the material, like recycle it in some way, if the saxophone sucked.
I finally had time to day to give it some service so I could play it.
This is pretty brief, but if it was me, and someone else playing, I could extract a lot from this clip. Because it's me, I can't.
I wonder what you all hear and conclude, viewing/listening to this.
I will say, in advance of you listening, and hopefully commenting, that what I hear from the clip is very different from what I felt playing.
I will make a longer post about this on the same Instagram account later, but I mounted this there because it's the easiest way right now to mount a clip over 25 megs.
www.instagram.com