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Linky Lee
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,954
- Location
- Salisbury, UK
I made a trip to my local music shop, Courtney and Walker.
Quite a nice shop, friendly staff and reasonable prices. I went with the intent of trying out a few altos, particularly a 62 and a 901. Gernerally with the aim of trying to find something balanced between the Hanson and Martin I have. I wanted the Martin's ease of top end and the Hanson's rich bottom end and a nice modern keywork.
They didn't stock the 62 because the guy doesn't like them as no one was buying them because they were all going for the 901 over the 62. So I was a bit disappointed. No worries though, he pulled out two Yani 901s, a 991 a Series II Selmer, a La Vie ironically by Selmer USA and a few mouthpieces, a couple Yanigasawa Ebonites and a metal Yanigasawa.
First of all I tried the two Yani 901s. Both had beautiful actions, and are an incredibly light horn but seemed pretty well built and nicely finished, the consistency of Yani's appears to me to be superb, I've never come across an iffy one. I loved the feel of them but the sound wasn't that inspiring. It was a bit light and dull, though it did react very well to dynamics. The only problem was the sound of my Hanson was better (IMO obviously). I've always found my Hanson a bit tight up the top end but easy down the bottom (the reverse with my Martin). The Yani was a bit better at the top and the same as the Hanson down the bottom, but the middle was dead on both of them. One in particular was hard down the bottom end, like the Martin. So away went the Yanigasawas.
He pulled out the Series II Selmer next thinking a bit more punch and so on. It was awful, really tight down the bottom end, not particularly responsive dynamically and the top was satisfactory. The tone was big and a bit boomy I found. I didn't like it at all.
That went away rather quickly and I started experimenting with mouthpieces on the Yanigasawas and my Hanson.
The Yanigasawa ebonites came out first a 6 and a 7. Both were lovely to play though I like the 6 better, the 7 was more like an 8 or maybe even bigger, it was significantly louder, stronger and so on than the 6, but was overkill, especially on the Hanson which is quite a gutsy horn. It did liven the Yanigasawa up nicely though.
The 6 on the Hanson really gave it a nice tone.
Initially before I was there I thought I wanted something more warm and fuzzy to shift my sound towards the sound of the Martin. But I realised with the Yanigasawa want I wanted was a bit more edge and cut, actually a bit more brightness, articulation and energy. The Yanigasawa was more free blowing which I think lends itself to those kinds of properties and after that the Link just seemed a bit dull and stuffy in comparison.
He also brought out a metal Yani 6. That was damn awesome! It was really really loud! and had a huge round sound. Again it was overkill on the Hanson though the Yani was rather nice with it on.
In the end I settled with just the Yanigasawa ebonite 6 and bought myself it as an early Christmas present.
My conclusion by the end of the day was that the keywork on the Hanson could be improved with a little bit of work all round, so it's going back to Hanson for it's annual service next month, and with the new mouthpieces I've got a sound I'm really happy with and it's cutting through a bit more.
I didn't mean to buy anything, and I was actually looking for a tenor mouthpiece and an alto, not an alto mouthpiece. But it's certainly got me thinking. I want to give a metal yanigasawa tenor piece a blow!
I couldn't recommend the Yanigasawa mouthpieces enough. I found them all fantastic!
Quite a nice shop, friendly staff and reasonable prices. I went with the intent of trying out a few altos, particularly a 62 and a 901. Gernerally with the aim of trying to find something balanced between the Hanson and Martin I have. I wanted the Martin's ease of top end and the Hanson's rich bottom end and a nice modern keywork.
They didn't stock the 62 because the guy doesn't like them as no one was buying them because they were all going for the 901 over the 62. So I was a bit disappointed. No worries though, he pulled out two Yani 901s, a 991 a Series II Selmer, a La Vie ironically by Selmer USA and a few mouthpieces, a couple Yanigasawa Ebonites and a metal Yanigasawa.
First of all I tried the two Yani 901s. Both had beautiful actions, and are an incredibly light horn but seemed pretty well built and nicely finished, the consistency of Yani's appears to me to be superb, I've never come across an iffy one. I loved the feel of them but the sound wasn't that inspiring. It was a bit light and dull, though it did react very well to dynamics. The only problem was the sound of my Hanson was better (IMO obviously). I've always found my Hanson a bit tight up the top end but easy down the bottom (the reverse with my Martin). The Yani was a bit better at the top and the same as the Hanson down the bottom, but the middle was dead on both of them. One in particular was hard down the bottom end, like the Martin. So away went the Yanigasawas.
He pulled out the Series II Selmer next thinking a bit more punch and so on. It was awful, really tight down the bottom end, not particularly responsive dynamically and the top was satisfactory. The tone was big and a bit boomy I found. I didn't like it at all.
That went away rather quickly and I started experimenting with mouthpieces on the Yanigasawas and my Hanson.
The Yanigasawa ebonites came out first a 6 and a 7. Both were lovely to play though I like the 6 better, the 7 was more like an 8 or maybe even bigger, it was significantly louder, stronger and so on than the 6, but was overkill, especially on the Hanson which is quite a gutsy horn. It did liven the Yanigasawa up nicely though.
The 6 on the Hanson really gave it a nice tone.
Initially before I was there I thought I wanted something more warm and fuzzy to shift my sound towards the sound of the Martin. But I realised with the Yanigasawa want I wanted was a bit more edge and cut, actually a bit more brightness, articulation and energy. The Yanigasawa was more free blowing which I think lends itself to those kinds of properties and after that the Link just seemed a bit dull and stuffy in comparison.
He also brought out a metal Yani 6. That was damn awesome! It was really really loud! and had a huge round sound. Again it was overkill on the Hanson though the Yani was rather nice with it on.
In the end I settled with just the Yanigasawa ebonite 6 and bought myself it as an early Christmas present.
My conclusion by the end of the day was that the keywork on the Hanson could be improved with a little bit of work all round, so it's going back to Hanson for it's annual service next month, and with the new mouthpieces I've got a sound I'm really happy with and it's cutting through a bit more.
I didn't mean to buy anything, and I was actually looking for a tenor mouthpiece and an alto, not an alto mouthpiece. But it's certainly got me thinking. I want to give a metal yanigasawa tenor piece a blow!
I couldn't recommend the Yanigasawa mouthpieces enough. I found them all fantastic!
