Saxophones Flea Bay Buy (UPDATE)

[gladsaxisme]

The sax arrived last night, I was on holday when I bought it so I asked the seller to delay posting till I got home,so I phoned him wednesday and it arrived last night.As you might expect from an ebay purchase it is a total crock with pads and corks missing bad soldering and loose guards.

NO IT WASN'T,it arrived well packed and when I opened it looked like it had never been played, it came with the usual accessories like mpc, neck strap, long case houlder strap,but it also had a pad saver,and a full box of ten flying goose reeds WHOOOO YIPPEEEE.The mpc had no marks on it as if it had never been anywhere near anybody's mouth,the neck cork was bone dry and also looked like it had never seen a mpc.Overall the sax looked very nicely made with no ugly soldering and poor laquer but there was some spotting underneath it, the pads are obviously not of the best quality and all the usual permanently closed pads were sticking so today I have given them a wipe with lighter fluid on q tips and they are fine now,so to playing and only using it's own mpc and goose reeds the action seemed nice and free with no clonking and sticking and the finger spacing seemed quite nice too,but I have to say the tone left a lot to be desired,sounded a bit like those metal things you hum into with a circle on the top"the grey matter won't remember what they're called.

All in all I think I've got myself a nice little bargain and with a different mpc and reeds it could be a nice little player for £70 I'm not complaining

Now back to the sop......john

 

[Targa]

'metal thing you hum into'

Kazoo, best accompanied by swanee whistle.

 

[kevgermany]

Sounds good. How's the sop going?
& the 'nino?

 

[jonf]

Good stuff. Don't worry about it sounding like a Kazoo, with a decent mouthpiece and a Rico Royal or Rico Jazz Select reed I'm sure it'll sound great. Bargain.

 

[jbtsax]

They're called "Flying Goose" reeds for a reason. I second the advice to move up to a Rico reed. The Yamaha 4C is a good plastic middle of the road mouthpiece as well for around $25 US.

 

[gladsaxisme]

Sounds good. How's the sop going?
& the 'nino?

Thanks Kev the old straight sop hasn't had much use for a while,mainly due to a bit of clicking to do with the octave mechanism
"very distracting" and the nino gets very few outings because I struggle a bit with the small tight fingering...john

 

[gladsaxisme]

Good stuff. Don't worry about it sounding like a Kazoo, with a decent mouthpiece and a Rico Royal or Rico Jazz Select reed I'm sure it'll sound great. Bargain.

Hi jonf

I do have a 4C that I bought when I got my straight sop ""ebay again and not as good as this one,an old Stagg with a clonk round the octave mech".When I put it on the new sop it improved things no end but another thing emerged,being a click between
a and b both octaves I'm thinking it's probably "a" sticking a bit still and then popping off as you swop to "b" but not sure if there is any other linkage involved as well,will be investigating further.....john

ps I do already have some 2.5 rico's that I came across in the old sop case probably bought them with the mpc

 

[gladsaxisme]

They're called "Flying Goose" reeds for a reason. I second the advice to move up to a Rico reed. The Yamaha 4C is a good plastic middle of the road mouthpiece as well for around $25 US.

Hi jbt

I have to say that I was quite surprised that the goose that was already on the mpc blew quite easily and will give them a go on the 4c to see if they are better than expected,it is the first time I have encountered them personally and have based my previous ideas of them on other forum comments,who knows they may be better than previously thought....john

 

[jbtsax]

The Flying Goose reeds I tried a few years ago had virtually no "heart" in the center of the reed. They were indeed very easy to blow because they had no resistance. As a result they made a clarinet sound like a kazoo.

 

[kevgermany]

The ones I tried were like planks. dead/unresponsive.

 

[gladsaxisme]

Just had another look at the sticking on a to b and it was another small double pad activated by the a mechanism higher up the sax that was sticking,a little wash with lighter fluid and hey presto no click,SMOOTH BABY SAX....john