Cheep soprano saxes - Academy

[Dylan]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of these:
http://www.studentmusicsupplies.com/asp/productdetails.asp?productID=19

I am looking for a curved soprano, but have not got a lot of dosh to spend. They are offered with a 21 day money back guarantee so there is not much risk involved.

Now I'm a dad there is never any room to fit my tenor in the car if we go away. My plan is that - a curved soprano would fit in anywhere and I could keep the practice up (leaf out of Mr Bobby G's book there).

Also, any recommendations regarding a decent first soprano mouthpiece.

Ta very muchly.

D

 

[Bobby G]

I have two soprano mouthpieces, both of which serve me very well; one is a Selmer C*, the other is the good old standby, a Yamaha 4c. Both sound really nice, without being too reedy, using Plasticover 3 reeds. My curved soprano is an Artemis (cheapest of the cheap Trevor James) but is also identical to Jambo's apart from the engraving - his is a....ermm...ahhh... I forget, but they play really nicely, the intonation is ok and sounds (well, the way I play it, it does) like a little saxophone as opposed to the more snake-charmer-y sound more often associated with the straight sop.

 

[Dylan]

Thanks for the info Bob. I'll check out the TJ option.

That snake-charmer-y sound makes my toes curl. Why not have done with it and play an oboe 😉

 

[jonf]

I'm also intrigued by these sops. I fancy a curved one, but give that I only play sop about once a month I really can't justify paying for a Yanagisawa one. Might give it a shot.

There's some info in the thread called "Soprano: Walstein, Antigua, Gear4Music... " Should find it easily if you search for Antigua.

As an alternative, still much cheaper that the TJ Artemis, is the John Packer range. These, and a couple of others are recommended by Stephen Howard.

Jon

 

[Jules]

My personal fave soprano moutphiece is the Yamaha Ebonite Custom, cheap, work well and a nicely warm tone..

 

[Dylan]

JonF wrote:
I'm also intrigued by these sops. I fancy a curved one, but give that I only play sop about once a month I really can't justify paying for a Yanagisawa one. Might give it a shot.

Yes, I'm in the same boat. I'd love to have a curved Yani soprano to match my tenor - but one has to eat ! Also, I'm working on the basis that the John Packer, or Academy horns cannot be ten times worse than the Yani's.

What sort of soprano do you play at the moment Jon?

I'm also budgeting for a decent mouthpiece - so thanks for the tip Jules. I may be down to bother you with that one soon
Do you regularly play soprano at all ? I had you down as a strictly tenor / baritone bar walking, jive talking, zoot suited, honking sort of a guy (in the nicest possible way).

D

 

[Pete Thomas]

I have heard bad things about the Academy curved sopranos (intonation).

I believe Walstein are now doing curved sopranos, that would be my recommendation at the moment. - I have one of their straight ones and it's very good.

 

[Dylan]

Pete Thomas wrote:
I have heard bad things about the Academy curved sopranos (intonation).

I believe Walstein are now doing curved sopranos, that would be my recommendation at the moment. - I have one of their straight ones and it's very good.

Hi Pete

Thanks for the info. Guess what - literally just ordered one and then saw your post. Oh well I'll check it out and see how it goes.

The Walstein was my first choice due to the excellent reviews they have been getting. I've been periodically pestering the Walstein guys about a curved version of their soprano. Their website is not showing them yet. Do you know anything extra?

Regards

D

 

[pedro]

Similar motivation to Dylan, but I've never played a soprano (OK, A Roy Benson in Chamberlains, haslemere for a couple of minutes). I also blew a tenor for a couple of minutes. Recently. Loved it.
I play Yamaha 275 alto with increasing confidence and competance (still crap btw) but I still can't solo very well. My wife tells me I can now "play the sax" rather than a total beginner, but who knows?
I've been talking to Martin at Walstein. He has a curved Walstein Sop sample - its in the country, as yet not yet unpacked. He has moved a few miles and now has a practice room - plus I now have to pass his gaff on my way home from work. Excellent! As soon as available I'll go and have a blow.

 

[Jules]

Do you regularly play soprano at all ? I had you down as a strictly tenor / baritone bar walking, jive talking, zoot suited, honking sort of a guy (in the nicest possible way).

D

Actually got back into tinkering on sopranos in the shop recently. I was brought up as a bit of a folky and find playing celtic stuff on a soprano works a treat (guess I'm nicking that from Jan Garbarek). Can't say I'm a regular soprano tootler but can hold it together on one reasonably well- provisional to using a Yamaha custom (I've found a lot of soprano mouthpieces very tricky- but that's just embouchure familiarity).

 

[Dylan]

Pedro wrote:
I've been talking to Martin at Walstein. He has a curved Walstein Sop sample - its in the country, as yet not yet unpacked. He has moved a few miles and now has a practice room - plus I now have to pass his gaff on my way home from work. Excellent! As soon as available I'll go and have a blow.

What a wonderful thing this forum is! Thanks for the update Pedro and let us know how you get on with the Walstein.

I'll be pestering Martin again shortly!

D

 

[Pete Thomas]

Dylan wrote:

Hi Pete

Thanks for the info. Guess what - literally just ordered one and then saw your post. Oh well I'll check it out and see how it goes.

The Walstein was my first choice due to the excellent reviews they have been getting.

I just checked with my source about Academy, and I gave you out of date info apparently they are OK now.

Yes, I had a blow on the Walstein curved - it was very good. I only saw one there when I visited (yesterday).

 

[Dylan]

I just checked with my source about Academy, and I gave you out of date info apparently they are OK now.

Yes, I had a blow on the Walstein curved - it was very good. I only saw one there when I visited (yesterday).

Thanks very much for doing that Pete. Much appreciated. I'll report back on how I get on with the Academy.

D

 

[jonf]

What sort of soprano do you play at the moment Jon?


D

Hi Dylan

I've got an 1924 Buescher True Tone straight sop at the mo. It's a great sax, had it for over 20 years, but in all that time I've never been able to get on with the palm keys. I've got big hands with long fingers, and even with risers fitted they're still too low to reach without moving my whole hand away from the normal position.

I've tried a few mouthpieces for sop - Selmer Classic silver (like Coltrane), selmer C**ebonite, the original Buescher one, Berg ebonite, but the one I like the best is a Yanagisawa ebonite 7. Plays great, and you can often pick them up cheap on eBay.

Very interested to hear how you get on with the Academy - post a full review when you've got it.

Cheers

Jon

 

[frankb]

Pete - Do you have any thoughts on straight vs curved sop for intonation (and anything else)?

Obviously, curvies win out on the cuteness level, but I'm curious about how they measure up on other fronts.

 

[Bobby G]

The main reason I bought my Artemis curved soprano was, like Everest, because it was there - I fancied one, it was sitting in the shop going cheep. I tried it and liked it so I bought it. I wasn't particularly looking for that brand, just something cheap to let me get to know the soprano a bit better. i'd had an Antigua straighty which generally played better but which became very uncomfortable to play very quickly (within 10-15 minutes), due mainly to not having a curved crook which meant I had to play without a sling as it snagged on the body tube. So, I tried the curved sopand found it far more comfortable, plus I like the way the sound comes up at you from the bell.

 

[stephen_howard]

The early Academy curved sops were inclined to be 'a bit wild' down the bottom end - but since summer last year they've been using a new supplier, and the examples I've seen have all been fine.
All the same, give it a good test when you get it and if you have any problems contact the supplier...I've found he's quite a helpful and friendly guy. If you have the right model it should be marked 'Scholarship Series'. You'll need to upgrade the mouthpiece!

Regards,

 

[stephen_howard]

Frank....I've found the curved sops are more likely to have tuning issues than the straight ones, but that seems to be improving in general.
I'd still recommend caution if buying without recommendation - make sure there's a money-back trial period.

Regards,

 

[Dylan]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll report back once I've a) got the sax b) got a decent mouthpiece and c) sorted out my embouchure enough to cope with a soprano rather then a tenor 😛

D

 

[frankb]

Thanks for the input, gentlemen! I haven't acquired sop GAS just yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time...!