Saxophones Talking of Hanson Tenors...

DavidUK

Well-Known Member
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:rolleyes:

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...couldn't resist this one, and thanks to Ads for tipping me off although speaking to Graham at Hansons just, who asked Alastair in the background, the ST5 was based on the SA80 not the Buffet. It was the SA5 (which Ads thought this might be) which was similar to the Buffet 400. Just phoning these guys ended up with me in tears of laughter as they are always full of fun.

I phoned up as strangely this horn has no serial number by the thumb rest. Graham confirmed it's an ST5 from my description and I've emailed some photos to him just to check. I'm guessing it may be a demo model as with my Buffet 400 Alto which also had no S/N.

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Anyway... how does it play? It's a distance buy so out of its packaging, on with my Soloist F, and... squawkkkk! Won't play the low octave. Ah... I know this one - octave key not fully closing. Yep, that's it. Pencil under the key trick and it's fine. All notes playing... yes! Seems perfect. A little tootle on a few tunes and it's light under the fingers and has a nicely extended Eb/C for my little finger.

No dents or dings, a few little tarnishing spots commensurate to its age (I think this must be an early one?) and we have another great (British) tenor.

Will it beat the Grassi - I think not, but I'll give them a go together when I have time.

🙂
 
Fantastic David - even better being a Tenor as you have enough Alto battles going on ;-) ....... It may actually compliment the Grassi by being different .

as for it being "based on an SA80 and not a Buffet-400" - all these Chinese horns are either based on the Yanagisawa 901 or the SA80 - the Buffet-400 is likely an SA80 copy as well (or that all are Yani copies) ..

Remember that Hanson just love to service their horns either free or at very low cost 😉.
 
It did cross my mind it might need a service, especially buying blind (as the YAS-25 did recently - Connollys again, excellent!) but I can't find anything wrong with it!

I'll give it a proper inspection at the weekend when I have more time. Out late yesterday evening knocking up a few clients who were difficult to get hold of.

That should help pay for my recent bout of GAS!
 
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Sorry (Blame Jeanette) but I can see David`s advert - "Got a Mistress taking all your mojo ?, no time for the old Boiler ? - no prob, we`ll service your missus for any old saxes you have knocking about" ... No wonder he`s never had a MkVI, he`s not found a "client" rich enough to lose one .
 
Yeah - you can sit there innocently "liking" Prof`s post, Jeanette , bad influence you are !! ............
:tongue-out:

Anyway back to the GAS thing - at least David, you only have two tenors , not hard to justify and if not I`m sure there`ll be many looking forward to the arrival of a Hanson Tenor on the Yardsale 😉 .................

BTW after missing the SA80-II , I`m down to two horns and no clarinets ............ OK, I`ve never had that many but it`s still a notable achievement
 
Played the Hanson and Grassi together last night. Bear in mind I've done the same with a YTS-62 Purple Logo and it lost against the Grassi and you'll be surprised to hear the Hanson has me in a quandary!

It's been a while since I played tenor, and I tried the Soloist MP and Windcraft Etude with various reeds but once again found my favourite MJ 2 1/2 was no longer any good for me? I ended up with a Rico Royal 1 1/2 on the Soloist and a weird Rico "V2" on the Etude - ever heard of these? I inherited a box of them somewhere down the line. Tried others: Rico Orange 2 & 3, RJS 2M filed but no good.

Whereas I'd previously liked the Soloist the best, now I'm favouring the Etude? Is it that my alto embouchure has affected my tenor one so that I now favour a different MP & reed? I guess so...

I think the Soloist needs a soft reed for me to get the raspiness out of it to match the Etude's perhaps wider tip opening? Even then it sounds more classical than jazzy.

Charlie Connolly's Grassi overhaul setup means the Grassi is sublime to play - so smooth and quiet, whereas the Hanson has a little key work clattering here and there (needs a check, adjust, and oil I think) but I couldn't really fault it on fingering or tone. I can see why the Hanson fans say there's something different about these from similar far eastern sourced horns. Must be all in the setup at the factory. I'm not sure when it was last played, and whenever I get a sax which still has the reed attached to the MP it makes me think it hasn't perhaps been kept in tip-top condition but all the pads are sealing and all the notes play perfectly.

I shall have to (once again) ask for my tutor's opinion, and ear, and see what happens. I'm trying to get down to the "one" alto and tenor by trying new instruments which come my way. Not being able to choose between two altos AND two tenors isn't really helping. I can see how "collections" happen!

:rolleyes:
 
Rico V reeds seem to be old stock - I got a few V2.5s and V3s in Sop from a local music shop clearing out - no idea if they`re cut like Orange or like Royal .......

the likely reason the 62 tenor you had lost against the grassi would be down to a preference for a smoother deeper tone in tenor , the 62 Mk1s are aggressive - the 61 loud and aggressive 😉
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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