Grafton rises from the ashes

[spike]

From Thailand no less,
get this
if this is for real i want one now.

 

[Linky Lee]

I'm just getting a black page with a white square in the middle and a small grey border, I'm not too interested in one of those, I could make my own quite easily 😛

It just loads slowly it seams. I can see now. Looks a bit ominous. Integrated octave mech?

Why haven't they said you can paint it yourself for your own specific colour combos! The different coloured keys is cool.

It looks wrong without an octave mech on the outside.

Can you get the sound clips to work?

 

[philthd]

am i seeing that right that the octave vent mechanism is inside the neck?

that said - if it plays ok that could be an incredible horn - the choice of keywork colours especially - and look how good it looks on a beach

 

[spike]

you gotta ask - why has it taken so long for somebody to do this - the grafton was a great horn, but the materials in those days weren't resilient enough, hence many Graftons have not survived. Since then you've got household goods, bikes, cars, planes and space rockets all made out of, to a more and lesser, extent synthetic materials. Has it not been extensively scientifically proved that only the superstitious and extremely nervous believe that the material used has an effect on the sound of the saxophone?
My first sax was a Grafton, will my last one be similar?

gruss - spike

 

[ochaye_mckay]

I got the sound clip to work eventually - took about 10 minutes to load. It sounded like a very sophisticated kazoo to me - but what do I know?? Maybe that was the desired effect of that piece.

Dave.

 

[spike]

sounded like a very sophisticated kazoo

The Sound clip from the French made well known Vintage Saxophone (silver palted) doesn't sound much different -

the Lakey 6*3 with its high baffle and medium chamber and the jazz select 2S have probably more to do with the sound, and the player might even be the king of thailand in person, I have heard "he plays pretty good for a king".

 

[Linky Lee]

They both sound very similar to me but the performance wasn't as good on the polymer saxophone and it sounded like the polymer was easier to blow or isn't as loud as the other saxophone because the sax seemed to break up earlier and the reed sounded more percussive.

This could of just been the player not being consistent though.

The rubber pads are interesting. They're obviously waterproof and if they do seal as well as leather pads they could be less prone to sticky pad syndrome as they won't absorb moisture.

I'd have to play one before I could think about them in comparison to other saxophones, but it certainly has potential.

I'm one of those that thinks material makes a difference, maybe you can't hear it but if you perceive it then to your mind it's there. Before trying T901 and 902s I wouldn't of said this, but all the 902s had the same tonal differences to the 901s and the same was true with the TJJ customs. That's what prompted me to get my Walstein.

 

[Tenor Sax]

Maybe Pete will use one in his next underwater Video. We can wait for the review. :whistle:

 

[spike]

I mailed and received the following reply from Mr. Piyapat Thanyaki:

Thank you for your interest in our saxophone. The production will be finished in Jan 2008 , price directly from our factory should be around +- 200USD. If the A1 hit the market with reasonable response then the Tenor will be our next model (T1) then Soprano (S1) . By the time we finish our production we will fine some one who can be our distributor in each continent.

At that price I'll take half a dozen.

 

[philthd]

wowzers - its worth a hundred squid as an ornament or just for a photoshoot or something.
if they can really churn them out for that price and they dont sound dreadful they will surely shift a lot of units

 

[bobk]

...and perhaps we can look forward to a professional musician telling us that they are the spawn of satan.

 

[Saxlicker]

spike wrote:
At that price I'll take half a dozen.

Shhh Spike!

The middle men are listening....
But, Me too!

Did he mention where you could get one from?
Funny but I didn't realise how much I needed one of those until you discovered it!


EDIT...direct from the factory...doh!

 

[Jules]

I love the picture of it sitting in a deckchair while some Thai woman reads a book to it!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[peter_fitton]

bobk wrote:

...and perhaps we can look forward to a professional musician telling us that they are the spawn of satan.

:laugh:


200 USD, eh? That probably means we can probably expect to pay about ?600 for one if they're ever sold in UK shops.

Looks very nice, hope it works better than the website, mind.

 

[Pjonah]

Excellent!

Being an engineer I had the idea of making a sax of my own design, or at least copying the main components from an established sax, the main tube out of carbon fibre along with the key cups, all barrels and control linkages would be titanium to minimise inertia so as to produce a feather light action.

Manufacturing problems asside, the cost of such a beast is also prohibitive. So hay ho don't watch this space any time soon!

But a mass produced polycarbonate sax is right on the button. How long will it stay in regulation? well these are issues only they can address, but its a great idea and one I largely applaud.

Simon