I don't understand this - to make a curved alto, tenor, baritone, bass etc the manufacturer would have to make a long straight tube for the main body. That tube would be the easy bit, just by wrapping brass sheet around a straight, near-conical mandrel and joining up the edges, as manufacturers do today.
Making a bow and curving bell would be much harder and then there would be the complication (and extra cost) of fixing them together.
Can you explain what you mean about the difficulty of straight tubes ?
Rhys
I base my information on conversations with other “saxophone people” (pros and amateurs). So you should take it as “non-science”.
From what I heard the problem with doing a one-piece saxophone is to get good intonation. The lowest tone holes on the tube is critical. When LaSax constructed (mock-up) their straihgt alto and tenor they used small bore Martin sax with soldered tone holes. They could “move” the low tone holes on the tube so they got the right intonation. I think LaSax spent a lot of time before they got it right. I think their saxes were made in Tawain. Also to do the flair on a soprano in one piece must be harder compared to a flair on a bell-piece.
The machine that did the drawn tone holes was expensive and it was just Conn and Buescher that could afford to invest in those machines. King, Martin and Holton had soldered/brazed tone holes. Other manufacturer that had drawn tones holes, made their tone holes with different methods. So my late Buescher TT is a much better sax compared to my older Buescher soprano, because the machine did a better job.
How many mass produced saxes made quality control? Were the first made saxes with new tools better than the saxes that were made just before re-tooling? Were the saxes that were sold under their own name better than the stencil saxes?
It makes sense to do a soprano from a straight conical tube (why are doing detachable necks, just to produce different tone/sound?). Fewer pieces and less complex fittings compared to a non-curved soprano. Was it just different tone that the manufacturer wanted to achieve with the curved soprano? They spent a lot of efforts in making different (curved) sopranos; straight, Buescher Tipped-bell, King Saxello, Lyon and Healy (Holton) Perfect Curved and fully curved sopranos. Just the two first were made in one-piece. But none have detachable necks. I think it was a competition between manufacturer. They were all advertised as improvements to the tone/sound, feel and mechanism. Some of the odd curved sopranos were not good, unplayable according to some collectors. But I still think there is a different between the straight and fully curved soprano. I prefer the tone of a straight soprano.
Of topic, and once again you should perhaps see this as information that you can live without!
Thomas