Thanks everyone for your replies and the video posted. It does have a great contemporary sound. I know Taiwan produce some good quality horns but I'm unsure I would want to pay that kind of money for a horn made there? I'm not being a snob at all but the profit mark up must be huge on these as I bet it doesn't cost that much to produce
I have mixed feelings about the idea: "would I pay so much money for a horn made in Taiwan? ".........why?
Because their mark up is very considerable indeed (yes it is) .......but so is the mark up by Apple products, made in China and most High Street Designer Clothes made in Asia with Egyptian cotton (or yes made in Italy...... but with Chinese workers working there, legal or illegal, working for far less than what the law really allows because they work in sub contractor’s sweat shops with hardly any control on them......) , not to speak of all manners of sneakers and trainers all made in Asia paying a pittance to the makers compared to what they are then sold to us in our western shops.
I went twice on holiday to Tunisia (probably questionable too) where the average monthly salary is 250€ , no wonder the largest Benetton factory outside of Italy is there!
I don’t know why it would be more or less moral to by a horn made in Taiwan and paid there at a fraction of what it costs here as opposed to buy almost anything else that we use daily and that includes fresh local food which supermarkets sell at an incredible mark up compared to the money paid to producers who are barely making the money they have spent to make it.
Last year there was a Dutch farmer who was giving away his onions (no need for jokes
) as a form of protest because he only got 1ct a Kg from the supermarket while the onions were 1€ (100 times as much) in the Supermarket that bought them from him!
My problem with that is that there is not a clear stamp on the horn saying “ Made in Taiwan” which I believe it should have to be fair to the people who make the damn thing.
Having said this there are plenty of people who are having horns made in Taiwan and are ever so difficult about admitting it:
Brancher, Aizen, Ishimori, all very expensive horns none of which is stamped “ Made in Taiwan"
What bugs me about the Mantra is their Vibrational “ Mantra”, have you read it?
“ THE MANTRA SAXOPHONE
The MANTRA saxophone is the most advanced saxophone available, using the highest technology in the industry and integrating over 30 innovations and features.
Mantra: A sound, or group of sounds, that leads the speaker to freedom.
The MANTRA neck is a quantum leap forward in neck design! Besides its completely new taper and shape, the brace and octave key are fully isolated from the neck tube.
The neck is totally free to resonate. Furthermore, the octave key rides on cartridge ball bearings completely isolating it from the neck tube and brace.
The bell-to-body brace has four fully captured points of contact with the body. It is far stronger than a traditional brace while
allowing for previously unheard of vibrational freedom.
The low C and B/Bb key-guard felts are in-line with the key arms. The key cups do not twist like on other saxophones,
or dampen vibration by having extra arms soldered to the key cup.
The reticulated finish, which is also inside the saxophone, creates a boundary layer of air like the dimpled surface of a golf ball or like sharkskin does with water.
As a result, the airstream travels freer through the saxophone!
Continuing his tradition of making the world’s best products, along with more than 30 innovations and features, the MANTRA is the most amazing sounding saxophone ever made. Join the Theo Wanne Revolution!.........."
I’ve rarely heard of more than 30 improvements on a saxophone which were mostly cosmetic or at best mechanical and pretended to have a massive impact on sound by means of pseudo scientific assertions to be as void of any significance ..........Vibration galore of this sax.........what the hell is it? .........what should it do to the sax? Nobody knows....... but they tell you that is very important. To tell the truth they are not the only one, almost anybody in sax world talks of resonance and body vibration but nobody explains why this should be significant.
The reticulated finish is another of these idiocies masked as truth.
Yes a non smooth surface can have an impact on the speed with which the item in question travels through the air or through the water. A smooth golf ball or a smooth boat is slower because the medium in which they travel literally adheres to the object but this is a different situation. Anyway, one would imagine this to have been measured and being tested why do we only get “......The reticulated finish, which is also inside the saxophone, creates a boundary layer of air like the dimpled surface of a golf ball or like sharkskin does with water.
As a result, the airstream travels freer through the saxophone!.....” instead of the learned theorical explaination of why this would be effective, let alone of being of any consequence to the sound of a saxophone..........
Very disappointing indeed!
