Straight or Rolled tone holes

[Saxade]

Looking at buying a new alto ... possiblly a P. Mauriet...
Now there is new choices ... straight or rolled tone holes.
Is there benifits in one over the other technically or is it a personal feel thing?

Adrian

 

[daveysaxboy]

Looking at buying a new alto ... possiblly a P. Mauriet...
Now there is new choices ... straight or rolled tone holes.
Is there benifits in one over the other technically or is it a personal feel thing?

Adrian

Hi again, they say there's less chance of leaks as there's more surface hitting the pad and it makes for a better seal and there more quiet with less pop or snap when pressed.I really like the feel you get with the rolled tone holes but saying that my 60NS horns are normal straight tone holes.When you try the 2 kinds you will feel the difference but 1 is not better than the other,just different but for me i would still pick the 67R over the 67 straight toneholes,the 66R and 67R are famous and loved for there sound,build and feel so pick the rolled tone hole model,there now legends in the sax world.

 

[half diminished]

I'm unsure as to whether its of benefit or otherwise. I have a Mauriat 66R tenor which I like very much and have had no issues with sticking pads. My Keilwerth SX 90R alto (which I sold) was a nightmare for sticking pads with its rolled ton holes. I'd say ignore the rolled tone holes and go for a sax you like the feel and sound of.

 

[thomsax]

I haven't played P. Mauriat but I have played Conn 10Ms with straight and rolled tonehols. I couldn't hear any difference between a Conn 10M w straight toneholes or w rolled toneholes when it came to the sound. I've joined the group of persons that think that the sound is a matter of design/construction of the neck, tube, taper an toneholes placements!! There are some "clever" guys doing research about this. So a sax can be made of brass or plastic, plated or bare brass, rolled or straight toneholes, thick wall or thin wall .... it doesn't matter!?!?!?! I don't know, but it's sound logic to me.

One of the reasons why Conn stoped making rolled toneholes, beside cutting costs of course, was that the music changed after WWII and the there was a demand for saxes with faster action. So a sax w straight toneholes plays faster than a sax with rolled toneholes? Nothing that I'm noticed, but on the other side I'm not good enough to find out. A sax with rolled toneholes gives you a smooth action (less noise)? Can be, but classical saxplayers prefer Selmer MK VI and old Beuschers. Most of the noise is from the keys and not when the pad hit the rim of the tonehole!

A sax without rolled toneholes cuts hours at the tech. To level or repair a straight tonehole is easier?

Thomas

 

[Koen88]

old thread but maybe some useful info for people searching for tech help.

Rolled toneholes dont cut into your pads like straight toneholes and thus they should last longer, but when a rolled tonehole isn`t level it`s a hell of a job to get it evened out.

 

[jbtsax]

On today's saxophones with quality pads there is no practical advantage to having rolled tone holes. I believe it is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to offer modern saxophones with rolled toneholes. From a technician's standpoint they are much more difficult to correct when they are not level.

 

[dubrosa22]

And they are more prone to sticking too. Still I like them in a vintage horn.

 

[MMM]

On today's saxophones with quality pads there is no practical advantage to having rolled tone holes. I believe it is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to offer modern saxophones with rolled toneholes. From a technician's standpoint they are much more difficult to correct when they are not level.

I agree with JBTSAX : for what I know, Conn adopted the rolled toneholes (Conn did not patent RTHs!) to work with the Res-O-Pads, idea being that the Res-O-Pad would "hug" the lip around the rolled tonehole and therefore improve the pads' seal (so the pad would make contact on the side as well as the top of the tonehole).
The fact that most people perceive vintage saxes with RTH to play better than the same model without (as on the Conn 6M,10M,12M) is more due to the fact that the materials and attention to detail (and probably manufacture in general) were of a higher standard than when they stopped using the RTH.
So I too think that in modern saxes with conventional pads, "RTH" is meant as providing better quality/sound... in actual fact they do very little other than adding to the fake vintage finish of modern saxes.

Cheers,
M.

 

[daveysaxboy]

My main 2 gigging tenors,1 with RTH's ,1 straight.They feel different.If you like a horn thats what matters.Selmer,yamaha and yanagisawa dont use them but i had about 5 horns with them and liked the feel.Not better but different. Its like the unlacquered vs lacquered thing.Some think it makes a difference,some dont.