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The CaféSaxophone saxophone

...Micro-bearings? Nah...just shove a bit of brass tube on a spring down the ol' barrel.

Not quite. There are Minibal bearings. They are not commonly used and are not exactely cheap.

Minibal Bearings

The manufacturer of the bearings is just around the corner where I live as well as the woodwindshop (Dörfler Klarinetten) from which the picture below is taken. Minibal bearings on their high end clarinets.

Alphorn

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Yep, I've seen the Miniballs (fitted to a Martin, no less). It's a good idea, but it's essentially old technology adapted to fit a horn.
 
Just in case you are all wondering, we are still working on this. It is taking time to make sure this is exactly how I want it and QC is up to the standard I want it to be.
 
I have two questions:
  • Will there be alto and tenor available?
  • What will be the likely price point, £2-£3k or £3-£4K?
 
I'm not totally sure what that means
I would guess it might mean having similar characteristics in terms of sound, key spacing, action, design.

So for example a Buffet S1 alto and tenor would "match" but a Conn 6M and a Selmer MkVI tenor wouldn't really.

I guess if the basic design started life as "similar to a" particular alto and a particular tenor by one existing manufacturer, they might still "match" even after lots of modifications in the development process.

Rhys
 
I would guess it might mean having similar characteristics in terms of sound, key spacing, action, design.

It's not necessarily a desirable thing.

The number of clients I see who have 'matched horns' is vanishingly small compared to those who have different makes across the range.
In fact I'd go a bit further and say that matched horns aren't all common among experienced players.
 
It's not necessarily a desirable thing.

The number of clients I see who have 'matched horns' is vanishingly small compared to those who have different makes across the range.
In fact I'd go a bit further and say that matched horns aren't all common among experienced players.
Ok, to phrase differently: have the playing characteristics of each horn been conceptualised with little or no regard to the other, merely ‘This’ll make a great tenor and that’ll make a great alto’?

I still know plenty of players who have all Mk6 axes or Yanis or whatnot....
 
Ok, to phrase differently: have the playing characteristics of each horn been conceptualised with little or no regard to the other, merely ‘This’ll make a great tenor and that’ll make a great alto’?

I still know plenty of players who have all Mk6 axes or Yanis or whatnot....
Come to think of it, some people have those awful Yamahas, you know, the ones without an engine :p
 
Come to think of it, some people have those awful Yamahas, you know, the ones without an engine :p

That raises an interesting point insomuch as players who stick with a single brand often use different models. I used a Yamaha 23 tenor for years, but a 62 alto. A common combination among Selmer players is a MKVI tenor and a BA/SBA alto.
 
This raises a fascinating question: Is an alto, simply a smaller, lighter tenor with a different range? I believe if you ask the same question with tenor and soprano or alto and baritone, the answer is a screamed-in-unison "NO!!!"
 
This raises a fascinating question: Is an alto, simply a smaller, lighter tenor with a different range? I believe if you ask the same question with tenor and soprano or alto and baritone, the answer is a screamed-in-unison "NO!!!"

I’m not sure I understand your drift on this. They are all saxophones. Along with the bass and sopranino a huge compass of notes - a whole orchestra if you like - is covered by the one type of instrument. Are they different to play? Well they all work in the same way, but yes, they all come with their own challenges.

In fact, in a classical sax quartet, I would think that their primary concern is making all the horns sound like an extension of the others. Homogeny.
Same as a bass clarinet, alto clarinet, Bb and Eb.

My question about the Cafe Saxophone is merely whether the two horns will - as Steve Puts it - be a Yamaha 62, or will one be a 62 and the other a Custom for example?

Note that I didn’t express a preference in my original question for them to be “the same” or not - it was just a question. At the end of the day, you blow a horn and you either like it or not.

It’s a very exciting prospect and incredibly brave by Pete as “just a bloke” to design and manufacture their own horn, rather than a company. To go one further and to be groundbreaking in design materials etc is terrific.
 
I’m not sure I understand your drift on this. They are all saxophones.

My theoretical question is that if you could simply shrink a tenor to the size of an alto would it be identical? Somehow, I think not. But maybe it would?
 
My theoretical question is that if you could simply shrink a tenor to the size of an alto would it be identical? Somehow, I think not. But maybe it would?
Ah ok. That is interesting. And I have no idea of course!
 
Or more on point for this discussion, are there differences in tenor and alto that are NOT proportional? For example what's the size ratio between sopranino and bass sax keys? Or finger reach?
 
My impression is that the main similarity between different size saxophones from the same manufacturer is the placement and feel of the keys. I have a Yamaha bari sax, and when I tried a Yamaha alto, the keys felt just the same, including two of them being too close together. But I wouldn’t say there was much similarity in sound. :)

As an example of the differences between different sax sizes, my (limited) experience is that stuffy middle-D is primarily a tenor sax problem.

And there seems to be general agreement that a C-melody is not the same as a small tenor. Certainly my c-mel is nothing like my tenor. It is completely different to blow, and it is quieter. So not all members of the saxophone family are the same.
 
Due to mostly to not yet having tooled up anything for tenor, it's not so easy to answer. I imagine they will be close, but maybe not as close as a a YAS62 is to a YTS 62 but then who has actually analysed that anyways. You can't just expand an alto to make it tenor pitch, for a start the neck is different. Plus if you scaled up an alto to a tenor, and subsequently again to a baritone, the keytouches would be too far apart.

As for the body, yes that will be kind of a scaled up version, I'll try to get some more data but without giving away necessary "trade secrets"

BUT, one exception may be when there is a soprano. My intention is to model it off my very own Buescher True Tone so yes , this will not be matched in anyway apart from being the best darnedest saxophone money can buy.

But then I think you'll find the Selmer MKVI soprano was still based off the body of much earlier (Super or Cigar or even model 26 I believe) while the MKVI altos and tenors were a new design, albeit very close to SBA.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Also think about keywork, I am making the ergos nice for me but also hoping it will be nice for people with both smaller and larger hands. Sounds impossible eh? But I have specified some changes to the pinky table. I don't like tilting tables so neither will have a tilting table but I've been looking into making the G# less wide (ie across the smaller dimension of the oval) but then countering that with making it longer so that it doesn't disfavour the larger pinky. So some trial and error is involved. But what this does mean I hope is that without inconveniencing the larger pinky it makes reaching the low Bb easier for the smaller pinky.

So the tenor will not just be a scaled up version of that - ideally I think it would be the same located in the same place relative to pinky.
 
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