David Roach
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Sequoia review. Part 1
As promised rather a long time ago, here's my Sequoia story!
This all started for me when I first met Aldevis. We originally got together during a pass-around of a Phil-Tone mouthpiece and, after finding much in common in terms of gear interest, he showed me his Sequoia horns and asked me to play them so that he could hear the difference in various necks. At that time I wasn’t really looking to replace my current Selmer saxes, but the Sequoias were, and remained, interesting and very good value. They were definitely not the run-of-the-mill Taiwan-component horns because I could feel straight away that they had a very good sound with depth and solidity, but in a way that is entirely different from other modern saxes.
Apart from a short period in the mid-80s where I played a set of Yamahas I have played Selmer saxes for all of my 40 years as a musician. Mk6s, Mk7s, SA80 Series 2s and finally Series 3s and a Reference 54 alto. So I’m well entrenched in the Selmer sound. But lately I have felt that I would like to have the option to more readily achieve something different; something broader and warmer than I have been getting on modern Selmers: also there are areas of the modern Selmer that I feel are weak. Having footled around with most of the alternatives I had not found anything I truly liked; despite the ‘big 4’ manufacturers’ horns and some others good points, nothing grabbed me as being worth the effort of changing. I am also very aware that gear we initially perceive as ‘better’ mostly turns out simply to be ‘different’ and in trying to solve something I didn’t like by making a change of equipment I have mostly ended up with a completely different set of problems.
I had a few reservations about the Sequoias at first: Aldevis lent me a K91 soprano last year and I found the keywork was a little rough at the edges and I wasn’t sure about one or two of the necks which seemed for the sake of flexibility to disturb the octave relationships. On Aldevis’ suggestion I emailed Roberto Buttus with my thoughts and eventually forgot about it all!
However, in July this year I was in the area of Udine with the Nyman Band for a few days, so on Aldevis’ suggestion and with his help, I contacted Roberto Buttus who makes the Sequoia saxophones and Savût trumpets and set up a morning visit. I was collected from my hotel by Cristina who is Roberto’s excellent ‘right-hand’ and driven about half an hour south of Udine to the workshop. I was immediately made to feel absolutely at home, not just with the offer of coffee and the presence of so many saxophones, but through the most hospitable, friendly and caring welcome. ‘Please, make yourself at home’ has almost never felt so genuine and I relaxed immediately.
During that morning I played sopranos, altos and one tenor. I was immediately impressed by how much work had been done on the areas that I had previously found problematic. The keywork was now comfortable and smooth and the tuning issues I had experienced, particularly on the alto, seemed to have been considerably ameliorated. Roberto’s inspiring attitude is that all his instruments are a ‘work in progress’ and that he will always strive to improve them, whether by refining the keywork or by improving the bore and neck of each instrument.
Because of Roberto’s own reservations about the Sequoia tenor in the hands of someone who he perceived to be mainly a ‘classical’ player he was reluctant to let me play one: but I persuaded him that I understood each saxophone as a separate instrument, that I had as much experience on tenor as anything else, and that I also played as much non-classical as anything else. I had played Aldevis tenor (which, let’s face it he sounds spectacular on!) but found it more extensively different to a modern Selmer than I did the soprano and alto. The intonation curves on the Sequoia tenor are not set up for a ‘classical-type’ approach (stable, consistent embouchure and vocal tract from top to bottom) but work well with a ‘jazz-type’ approach where the embouchure moves quite radically between the registers, meaning that the right-hand is quite a bit sharper than the left for someone like me and, evidently, for a lot of other true classical players. However, I actually loved the tenor a lot because despite the scale the octaves were really in-tune with themselves and the palm keys exceptionally strong and in-tune. I have spent a great deal of time with the palm key registers on all my modern Selmers, working on alternate fingerings and adjusting key heights etc. etc. to avoid excessive sharpness in pitch, thinness of tone etc. and so it was with huge relief that I found all the Sequoias radically better in this area.
Right then and there I committed to returning to Italy to buying an alto, and on my return home I decided to buy a soprano too, if I could find one I liked. I must admit the price of these instruments has quite a bit to do with my readiness to buy them; the soprano and alto retail in Italy for slightly less than €2000.00 apiece, less than half the price of a Selmer. But, I must also make it very clear that the price is a bonus: the Sequoia instruments are absolutely up to the job musically.
~~~~
In September I returned to Italy to test and purchase a soprano and alto. I flew out Ryanair to Trieste on a Wednesday, tested instruments on the Thursday, made some tweaks and continued testing on the Friday morning and flew home on the Friday late afternoon. Once again I was treated with exquisite hospitality, collected from the airport, lodged in a winery (!) and fed and watered. Unfortunately I came down with a bug whilst I was there, but with Aldevis' (who just happened to be visiting his home town of Trieste) kind assistance I chose two excellent instruments.
In the morning of the first full day I played three of the Sequoia Lemon altos. (Yes, I know ‘Lemon’ has undesirable connotations as regards musical instruments, but let it go, let it go…). The Lemon is an unlacquered brass instrument with lacquered keywork, ostensibly designed for players who like a free blowing, broad sound. Each one was a little different in intonation and in freeness of blowing. The Sequoias come with two necks as standard, so once I had settled on a particular alto as a favourite, I played a number of necks on it and selected two that performed equally well but gave somewhat different feels. One is very open in feel, the other is more compact and focused; they have similar intonation characteristics. I may in future also try to find a neck with a more contained sound for classical work, maybe a higher copper content lacquered one.
In the afternoon I played sopranos. I had three instruments to choose from again, but two were unlacquered Lemons and one was a K91. The K91 has a higher copper content which gives slightly rose colour to the lacquered brass; it’s designed more for classical players who want a somewhat warmer and more contained sound. In the end I chose a Lemon with a good strong open tone. I had a bit of difficulty selecting the right neck – too much to choose from! Roberto very kindly allowed me to take four necks away with me. Two are the standard unlacquered, one of which is more spread than the other, one of the K91 necks and finally one special unlacquered which I believe is Roberto’s own personal neck. The K91 neck immediately transforms the instrument into a much more compact instrument tonally, but the one I have used most is Roberto’s special which has great tuning and a big sound that I can really hear well in a noisy band!
So that was September. I had a thoroughly good trip (apart from my bug which lasted only a day) and got the saxes back home without incident on Ryanair. I use a large hard-shell suitcase which fits the ‘Trekking’ style of case perfectly for touring. Both saxes went in very snugly and the case still weighed just under 20kgs even with two bottles of wine inside. This is what I recommend for touring with instruments nowadays (the wine too). No hassle at airports because it doesn’t look like a musical instrument and in 18 or so years of using this approach with the Nyman Band I have never so for had a problem.
~~~~~~~~
My next aim was to get familiar enough with the Sequoias to use them on the recent Nyman Band gigs in Spain last week and at the Barbican concert last Monday; basically 6 weeks to sort out the tuning and get any tweaks done. No problem I thought until I trapped a nerve in my right shoulder which has resulted in quite a lot of pain and a numb first finger all of which rather limited my practice time. Also I suffered the usual doubts after the honeymoon of a week or so – have I done the right thing, have I chosen the right instruments? etc and so on, you know the score. Nonetheless I did use them on the gigs and I am very pleased to report that they performed fantastically. The sound is big and fat and does not require a hard reed at all. The palm keys are excellent and I felt I could really depend on their stability, especially on the soprano, but also the lower end is really free and solid to play. OK, no sax is perfect, I still have to concentrate on tuning and breath delivery, but these two instruments have really lived up to my expectations. I have reverted temporarily to Vandoren mouthpieces and reeds in order to achieve a sort of ‘base-level’ of the instruments for me. SL4 with Blue Box 3s on the soprano, V16 A5M with V16 2.5s on alto. Very dependable, very straightforward, no extra stress. I can get loads of power from these instruments with no problems and I have found their intonation to be very solid in all dynamics.
However, I am not going to allow this to be a review without some deeper insights into the instruments which will follow in due course.
As promised rather a long time ago, here's my Sequoia story!
This all started for me when I first met Aldevis. We originally got together during a pass-around of a Phil-Tone mouthpiece and, after finding much in common in terms of gear interest, he showed me his Sequoia horns and asked me to play them so that he could hear the difference in various necks. At that time I wasn’t really looking to replace my current Selmer saxes, but the Sequoias were, and remained, interesting and very good value. They were definitely not the run-of-the-mill Taiwan-component horns because I could feel straight away that they had a very good sound with depth and solidity, but in a way that is entirely different from other modern saxes.
Apart from a short period in the mid-80s where I played a set of Yamahas I have played Selmer saxes for all of my 40 years as a musician. Mk6s, Mk7s, SA80 Series 2s and finally Series 3s and a Reference 54 alto. So I’m well entrenched in the Selmer sound. But lately I have felt that I would like to have the option to more readily achieve something different; something broader and warmer than I have been getting on modern Selmers: also there are areas of the modern Selmer that I feel are weak. Having footled around with most of the alternatives I had not found anything I truly liked; despite the ‘big 4’ manufacturers’ horns and some others good points, nothing grabbed me as being worth the effort of changing. I am also very aware that gear we initially perceive as ‘better’ mostly turns out simply to be ‘different’ and in trying to solve something I didn’t like by making a change of equipment I have mostly ended up with a completely different set of problems.
I had a few reservations about the Sequoias at first: Aldevis lent me a K91 soprano last year and I found the keywork was a little rough at the edges and I wasn’t sure about one or two of the necks which seemed for the sake of flexibility to disturb the octave relationships. On Aldevis’ suggestion I emailed Roberto Buttus with my thoughts and eventually forgot about it all!
However, in July this year I was in the area of Udine with the Nyman Band for a few days, so on Aldevis’ suggestion and with his help, I contacted Roberto Buttus who makes the Sequoia saxophones and Savût trumpets and set up a morning visit. I was collected from my hotel by Cristina who is Roberto’s excellent ‘right-hand’ and driven about half an hour south of Udine to the workshop. I was immediately made to feel absolutely at home, not just with the offer of coffee and the presence of so many saxophones, but through the most hospitable, friendly and caring welcome. ‘Please, make yourself at home’ has almost never felt so genuine and I relaxed immediately.
During that morning I played sopranos, altos and one tenor. I was immediately impressed by how much work had been done on the areas that I had previously found problematic. The keywork was now comfortable and smooth and the tuning issues I had experienced, particularly on the alto, seemed to have been considerably ameliorated. Roberto’s inspiring attitude is that all his instruments are a ‘work in progress’ and that he will always strive to improve them, whether by refining the keywork or by improving the bore and neck of each instrument.
Because of Roberto’s own reservations about the Sequoia tenor in the hands of someone who he perceived to be mainly a ‘classical’ player he was reluctant to let me play one: but I persuaded him that I understood each saxophone as a separate instrument, that I had as much experience on tenor as anything else, and that I also played as much non-classical as anything else. I had played Aldevis tenor (which, let’s face it he sounds spectacular on!) but found it more extensively different to a modern Selmer than I did the soprano and alto. The intonation curves on the Sequoia tenor are not set up for a ‘classical-type’ approach (stable, consistent embouchure and vocal tract from top to bottom) but work well with a ‘jazz-type’ approach where the embouchure moves quite radically between the registers, meaning that the right-hand is quite a bit sharper than the left for someone like me and, evidently, for a lot of other true classical players. However, I actually loved the tenor a lot because despite the scale the octaves were really in-tune with themselves and the palm keys exceptionally strong and in-tune. I have spent a great deal of time with the palm key registers on all my modern Selmers, working on alternate fingerings and adjusting key heights etc. etc. to avoid excessive sharpness in pitch, thinness of tone etc. and so it was with huge relief that I found all the Sequoias radically better in this area.
Right then and there I committed to returning to Italy to buying an alto, and on my return home I decided to buy a soprano too, if I could find one I liked. I must admit the price of these instruments has quite a bit to do with my readiness to buy them; the soprano and alto retail in Italy for slightly less than €2000.00 apiece, less than half the price of a Selmer. But, I must also make it very clear that the price is a bonus: the Sequoia instruments are absolutely up to the job musically.
~~~~
In September I returned to Italy to test and purchase a soprano and alto. I flew out Ryanair to Trieste on a Wednesday, tested instruments on the Thursday, made some tweaks and continued testing on the Friday morning and flew home on the Friday late afternoon. Once again I was treated with exquisite hospitality, collected from the airport, lodged in a winery (!) and fed and watered. Unfortunately I came down with a bug whilst I was there, but with Aldevis' (who just happened to be visiting his home town of Trieste) kind assistance I chose two excellent instruments.
In the morning of the first full day I played three of the Sequoia Lemon altos. (Yes, I know ‘Lemon’ has undesirable connotations as regards musical instruments, but let it go, let it go…). The Lemon is an unlacquered brass instrument with lacquered keywork, ostensibly designed for players who like a free blowing, broad sound. Each one was a little different in intonation and in freeness of blowing. The Sequoias come with two necks as standard, so once I had settled on a particular alto as a favourite, I played a number of necks on it and selected two that performed equally well but gave somewhat different feels. One is very open in feel, the other is more compact and focused; they have similar intonation characteristics. I may in future also try to find a neck with a more contained sound for classical work, maybe a higher copper content lacquered one.
In the afternoon I played sopranos. I had three instruments to choose from again, but two were unlacquered Lemons and one was a K91. The K91 has a higher copper content which gives slightly rose colour to the lacquered brass; it’s designed more for classical players who want a somewhat warmer and more contained sound. In the end I chose a Lemon with a good strong open tone. I had a bit of difficulty selecting the right neck – too much to choose from! Roberto very kindly allowed me to take four necks away with me. Two are the standard unlacquered, one of which is more spread than the other, one of the K91 necks and finally one special unlacquered which I believe is Roberto’s own personal neck. The K91 neck immediately transforms the instrument into a much more compact instrument tonally, but the one I have used most is Roberto’s special which has great tuning and a big sound that I can really hear well in a noisy band!
So that was September. I had a thoroughly good trip (apart from my bug which lasted only a day) and got the saxes back home without incident on Ryanair. I use a large hard-shell suitcase which fits the ‘Trekking’ style of case perfectly for touring. Both saxes went in very snugly and the case still weighed just under 20kgs even with two bottles of wine inside. This is what I recommend for touring with instruments nowadays (the wine too). No hassle at airports because it doesn’t look like a musical instrument and in 18 or so years of using this approach with the Nyman Band I have never so for had a problem.
~~~~~~~~
My next aim was to get familiar enough with the Sequoias to use them on the recent Nyman Band gigs in Spain last week and at the Barbican concert last Monday; basically 6 weeks to sort out the tuning and get any tweaks done. No problem I thought until I trapped a nerve in my right shoulder which has resulted in quite a lot of pain and a numb first finger all of which rather limited my practice time. Also I suffered the usual doubts after the honeymoon of a week or so – have I done the right thing, have I chosen the right instruments? etc and so on, you know the score. Nonetheless I did use them on the gigs and I am very pleased to report that they performed fantastically. The sound is big and fat and does not require a hard reed at all. The palm keys are excellent and I felt I could really depend on their stability, especially on the soprano, but also the lower end is really free and solid to play. OK, no sax is perfect, I still have to concentrate on tuning and breath delivery, but these two instruments have really lived up to my expectations. I have reverted temporarily to Vandoren mouthpieces and reeds in order to achieve a sort of ‘base-level’ of the instruments for me. SL4 with Blue Box 3s on the soprano, V16 A5M with V16 2.5s on alto. Very dependable, very straightforward, no extra stress. I can get loads of power from these instruments with no problems and I have found their intonation to be very solid in all dynamics.
However, I am not going to allow this to be a review without some deeper insights into the instruments which will follow in due course.
