- Messages
- 790
- Locality
- Barcelona, Spain
For years, I was happy with just one alto. After all I was mostly a tenor player so my one TT alto was plenty enough because it's just that great a sax. Then entropy started getting the best of me (that's the title line of a song I've written) and all the body parts rebelling and even jumping ship made dealing with my tenor a schlep in every sense of the word. I put my nickel Big B tenor on consignment sale at Sax-On(still unsold due to Covid economics) and started playing the alto more and more of the time. That led me to want another alto to enjoy some variety. Great, right? Wrong! Once I had opened Pandora's eBox the possible choices began overwhelming me. I had a three-way contest going on in my head with a Blue Label, a Hammerschmidt Klingson, and the Couesnon that I finally chose to buy. Great. It came, and I've been playing it and really enjoying it. Easy Peasy to play, fantastic intonation up and down, a great sound, and good-looking to boot.
So what could possibly have gone wrong, you ask. It sounds too similar to my TT IV, believe it or not, so how is it a new and different horn?. How the hell could that be that a French sax made sometime in the 80s (most likely) almost the same as a vintage Elkhart sax made in 1928? I mean it's wonderful because if the TT is considreed a really great vintage sax by people in the know, then this fact should boost the cachet of the Couesnons, right? But, I as myself, is that what I wanted to happen? Isn't it better than if it had sounded crappy or just too bright? What was I after anyway and do I even know? Who the hell is minding the store here?
Naturally right away, why do I need a sax that sounds just like the first one? Would the Hammerschmidt have been the better choice? Or perhaps the Blue Label? Brain gears grinding at night keeping me awake because due to the Pandemic those two are still for sale on ePrey and at lower prices too. Lower, lower, lower.....buy buy buy.....the voices say in my mind..
Okay, here in Spain they have an expression that fits this awful situation but doesn't help resolve it: "No hay dos sin tres", i.e., You can't have two things happen without a third one occurring as well. That's the plain truth, right? I had one alto, I now have two, and every night I'm perusing the net looking at a possible best third horn to get.....but with the fear in my mind that not only will my wife kill me but that it will turn out that where there are 3 there are 4.....Just look at Duky Dave.....he's buried in saxes. Worse yet, this despite the fact that I should be happy with this great new sax and that I now have TWO, count 'em TWO TWO TWO saxes instead of one. One voice in my mind says.... I have 2 great ones and don't need more than that and besides which that if I do buy another I'll have to hide it from my wife through subterfuge this time. Self-gifting is over for this year. Wait till next year and do it then man!!
Unfortunatley the heart wants what the heart wants and drives the mind crazy...or is it the other way around and isn't this is absurd and just some distorted effect of simple hoarding syndrome and MPD (material possession disease) to make up for being less physically active due to aging? If I had had real money I'd probably have 5 cars because I love to drive but there are only bargain saxes at the beggar's banquet. However, isn't it all just the compulsive buying of some new object regardless of what, just for the pleasure of acquisition to amass in one's overflowing vault of possessions like the Smaug in his cave? An all-too human desire to stave off death by having too many things to make death conceivable perhaps? Who the hell knows? Whatever it is I know it is illogical and wrong of me and I feel like a weak sinner, which is strange because I'm neither Christian nor a theist. Too bad my not being Catholic because if I were, I could just go to confession, say 100 hail Adolph Saxes and go on my way. No I'm agonizing constantly as I consider variously: a Martin Indiana alto, a new more pristine nickel TT IV to replace the current one that will need a repad soon, an even more pristine satin silver TT, a Keilwerth Hohner President in beautiful nickel, a M. Boiste nickel Series A alto, a M. Boiste nickel Bari, an SML nickel Super 47, and the original Blue Label and Hammerschmidt altos now both at give-away prices.
I think I'll get drunk tonight so I can pass out and forget the whole thing in a dark alcholic fog.
So what could possibly have gone wrong, you ask. It sounds too similar to my TT IV, believe it or not, so how is it a new and different horn?. How the hell could that be that a French sax made sometime in the 80s (most likely) almost the same as a vintage Elkhart sax made in 1928? I mean it's wonderful because if the TT is considreed a really great vintage sax by people in the know, then this fact should boost the cachet of the Couesnons, right? But, I as myself, is that what I wanted to happen? Isn't it better than if it had sounded crappy or just too bright? What was I after anyway and do I even know? Who the hell is minding the store here?
Naturally right away, why do I need a sax that sounds just like the first one? Would the Hammerschmidt have been the better choice? Or perhaps the Blue Label? Brain gears grinding at night keeping me awake because due to the Pandemic those two are still for sale on ePrey and at lower prices too. Lower, lower, lower.....buy buy buy.....the voices say in my mind..
Okay, here in Spain they have an expression that fits this awful situation but doesn't help resolve it: "No hay dos sin tres", i.e., You can't have two things happen without a third one occurring as well. That's the plain truth, right? I had one alto, I now have two, and every night I'm perusing the net looking at a possible best third horn to get.....but with the fear in my mind that not only will my wife kill me but that it will turn out that where there are 3 there are 4.....Just look at Duky Dave.....he's buried in saxes. Worse yet, this despite the fact that I should be happy with this great new sax and that I now have TWO, count 'em TWO TWO TWO saxes instead of one. One voice in my mind says.... I have 2 great ones and don't need more than that and besides which that if I do buy another I'll have to hide it from my wife through subterfuge this time. Self-gifting is over for this year. Wait till next year and do it then man!!
Unfortunatley the heart wants what the heart wants and drives the mind crazy...or is it the other way around and isn't this is absurd and just some distorted effect of simple hoarding syndrome and MPD (material possession disease) to make up for being less physically active due to aging? If I had had real money I'd probably have 5 cars because I love to drive but there are only bargain saxes at the beggar's banquet. However, isn't it all just the compulsive buying of some new object regardless of what, just for the pleasure of acquisition to amass in one's overflowing vault of possessions like the Smaug in his cave? An all-too human desire to stave off death by having too many things to make death conceivable perhaps? Who the hell knows? Whatever it is I know it is illogical and wrong of me and I feel like a weak sinner, which is strange because I'm neither Christian nor a theist. Too bad my not being Catholic because if I were, I could just go to confession, say 100 hail Adolph Saxes and go on my way. No I'm agonizing constantly as I consider variously: a Martin Indiana alto, a new more pristine nickel TT IV to replace the current one that will need a repad soon, an even more pristine satin silver TT, a Keilwerth Hohner President in beautiful nickel, a M. Boiste nickel Series A alto, a M. Boiste nickel Bari, an SML nickel Super 47, and the original Blue Label and Hammerschmidt altos now both at give-away prices.
I think I'll get drunk tonight so I can pass out and forget the whole thing in a dark alcholic fog.
Alcohol helps though
