Saxophones The Bauhaus Walstein Sax Owners Thread

[Linky Lee]

Glad you like it and your teacher thinks it's good.
I'm waiting for a Walstein baritone...

 

[philthd]

Linky_Lee wrote:
Glad you like it and your teacher thinks it's good.
I'm waiting for a Walstein baritone...

is there a rumour mill to be plugged into - or a waiting list or something. i would also like to try me one of those

 

[Linky Lee]

no, they aren't in production, it's a dream at the moment.

 

[philthd]

i meant in order to get a sniff at the first ones

 

[Linky Lee]

you need to contact www.woodwindandbrass.co.uk and go down to try some.

I assume they have a few in the country now as Bobk got one.

 

[greg_strange]

I placed an order for a Walstein soprano sax on the 28th of June at 5.30 p.m. and it arrived today 4th of July at 11.30 a.m. from Woodwind & Brass Ltd. Fareham, UK. Total cost including shipping was GBP314.47p. which is approx. NZD840.00. Customs charge NZD108.00 . Brand new soprano sax for under NZD1,000.00. I haven't had a chance to play yet, but it looks pretty impressive and appears to be very well made. I am also impressed with the service from Woodwind & Brass Ltd, very well packaged and protected. It must be the most travelled sax on the planet, 20,000 km (12,000 miles). At this rate I may consider buying a tenor sax as well, two companions for my vintage 1980s 62 series Yamaha alto.
Regards,
Greg Strange.

 

[Col9]

Hi all, Well my better half's Walstein tenor arrived on Wednesday. What a sound this how all sax's should sound.

Our band leader/teacher tried it with his Vandoren mouthpiece, really nice woody I would say "old fashioned" sound. BUT we have a problem. He could play all the notes down to low F, but past that its a real strugle to play them quietly. E,D,C, were only attainable with a big loud blow and B just wavers up and down no matter what and sounds awful. He said its leaking like sieve from somewhere but we couldn't really see.

I know she could send it back if needed but if its only something simple she would prefer not to. Anyone has any ideas where to look or tweak I would be grateful. I appreciate the complexity of the keys etc but you never know it could be something silly.

shame really, other than that its an amazing horn in sound looks and build.

Cheers.
Col.

 

[jonf]

A sax technician with a leak light will probably be able to narrow it down pretty quickly. Assuming nothing's bent or out of alignment it should be a simple and cheap adjustment. The supplier should obviously pay for it, though, either collecting and returning your sax, or arranging for it to be done locally to you. They'll almost certainly want to do the former.

It's a bit worrying that it looks like it's been sent out without being checked. Not good.

I was thinking about buying a soprano from them, but I'm a little bit put off by this sort of thing, even though it may not be a big deal to sort out. Can you let us know how it goes in terms of their attitude to sorting it out, particularly whether they expect you to take the effort to sort out returning it?

Cheers, and good luck with getting it sorted.

Jon

 

[Pete Thomas]

JonF wrote:
It's a bit worrying that it looks like it's been sent out without being checked. Not good.

Not true. I called in there the other day (it's my local woodwind dealer) just after a shipment had arrived. He gets all the Walsteins tested and set up by a very good technician before sending them out. I saw this happening with my own eyes - every case opened, every horn checked and adjusted. I was very impressed.

 

[Col9]

Jon I've got no doubt they were set up and tested, I got my bari from them and their whole attitude/service is very good hence the second purchase.

I think the problem is we play mostly classical in a small woodwind community band so it does tend to show leaks ups in woodwind instruments, sax's especially, as we have to play below everyone else volume wise most of the time. We hadn't noticed the problem playing at home as volume isn't an issue and she never plays a Low B unless she has to 😛

I have to reiterate that it seems very well made and very nice looking and together with what we've heard so far it is going to be a great sax. I don't mind sending it back if I have to but I would prefer not to as its a pain neither us or the shop need. I'm hoping for a "check the x pad isnt lifting when x key is pressed" type answer then finding it is, then a tweak of a screw and its sorted.

Col. (should be on commission 😉 )

 

[jadoube]

I suggest simply call them. I predict an extremely helpful response.

I did and found that (to save me the hassle of sending it back) they organised a telephone helpline call from Stephen Howard talking me through a simple fix for a beginner.

Much appreciated and most effective.

John

 

[Linky Lee]

Just use the fag paper test in at least the four points of the compass to check to see which pads aren't seating properly.
Then you'll know where the problem is. Once the problem is isolated you can go about making the necessary adjustments to sort it out.
This can be quite time consuming as getting one pad right doesn't mean the others will be either.
Just go slow and monitor your moves so if you do something that ends up with bad results you can always change it back!

 

[Jules]

chances are it took a knock in transit- it's rare but not unheard of. I'd not jump to any conclusion concernnig Brass & Woodwind's setting up...

 

[Col9]

nachoman wrote:
chances are it took a knock in transit- it's rare but not unheard of. I'd not jump to any conclusion concernnig Brass & Woodwind's setting up...

Exactly my thoughts, as I said we have dealt with them before and they were great.

col.

 

[jonf]

Comments from Col, Pete and the others are reassuring - maybe I will get a sop from them after all. Let us know the final outcome, Col.

 

[whyaduck]

I just received my tenor yesterday here in the States. Arrived in good condition. No problems playing from high to low. Now, going to go through the process of matching up mouthpieces and reeds to find a good combination.

One thing I had a question on for other buyers is the strong smell coming from the case. Don't know what was applied to it or what it is made out of. Not a big thing, just curious.

Looking forward to playing this over the holiday weekend here.

 

[Col9]

Yes, the smell Is a bit overpowering at first :x Still its not so bad now.
Looks like a return might not be necessary. It would seem that the pad above the F wasnt closing as it should and the D key/pad was tipping towards the pearl. There is the potential of hell of a lot of leverage from the pearl across the edge of the tone hole.

Still If we can smooth out the metallic vibration noise when low B is blown we have it sorted. Main thing is shes happy. 😉

Rizla's eh? fantastic bits of kit.

 

[Pete Thomas]

The smell I believe is napthalene (mothballs), I noticed it on the case strap. It goes pretty quickly.

 

[Col9]

The things we moan about eh. Lovely sax, at a great price looks fantastic and we moan the case smells abit when new lol :laugh:

Damn Moths 😉

col.

 

[colin_]

Hi Col,

I found this exact same problem with my Walstein Tenor - but then this was my first tenor, having played only alto for 18 months or so. I could play all the low notes no problem but to play them quietly was a real struggle. Over the first three months I tried everything from different reeds and reed strengths, to all sorts of strange embouchures but could not get those quiet low notes to stay still. I was convinced it was me but....

Then started to get other professionals to try it and they agreed it was more difficult than might be expected and to my joy, I also heard them warbling horribly as well. This suggested a real problem to me, so I returned it for them to check out. Their technician made some minor tweaks and suggested it may have taken a very slight knock in transit but it came back wth all the same problems on the low end.

I went back last week though, in the expectation of exchanging it for one of a new batch which, to his credit, Martin at Walstein was only too happy to do - even after three months of me having it. Their techinician happened to be present and sure enough he was thoroughly testing all the new imports ready for sale - Steve Howard was a fine chap, great to talk to (and occassionally contributes to this forum ). He took it from me and blew it like nothing I had ever heard, instantly proving that there wasn't anything wrong with the sax at all - though this was with his own aged Vandoren Mouthpiece, which was indeed a much easier blow. With the stock mouthpiece he did admit that it was more difficult to control.

I was there for some time, with another more experienced sax-playing friend of mine and we quickly came to the conclusion that I should persevere but with a more suitable moutpiece. After trying a few I came away with a Yamaha 5C (it just felt slighlty more free-blowing and controllable than the 4C for me), which I'm hoping will get me on the way but I admit to still really struggling down there. I'm just trying to play as much as possible to get to know the instrument's foibles and try and tease those low buggers out, slowly but surely.

Both Steve and my friend agreed that the Walstein plays more like a vintage Selmer, than a modern Yamaha, and the low end is harder work for it. I haven't a clue what they are talking about, not having that experience, but having heard Steve play it like some sax-God and coax those low notes with a deliciously warm, breathy sub-tone 'til they were almost inaudible, I am wholly convinced that I just need to knuckle down and keep working at it. :cry:

I'd be really interested to hear how you progress with this though - keep us up to date, please! 🙂

EDIT: Oops, after all that I hadn't read your penultimate post thoroughly enough - was that definitely the cause? Is she good now?