Antigua Winds Soprano, I noe, great another post

[duckmaster1089]

I have a few ?s for the all knowing. Would you describe the antigua soprano a classical playing soprano? Hows the durabilty?Please tell me your experiences with the soprano.

[Dave Dolson]

duckmaster: I don't know exactly what you mean by "classical playing" soprano?

If you are asking if you can play classical music on it? Yes, although I don't.

If you are asking if the Antigua plays like a vintage soprano (plays in the classical sense of sopranos)? That would be impossible to answer because all saxophones vary. My Antigua is the equal of all of my vintage sops and better than my other modern sops.

My Antigua (and the others I tested) played accurately with a good scale, good response top to bottom, and a full tone. What more could any player want, regardless of the style of music played?

I contend that any player could apply any good-playing soprano to any style of music - and do it well. The horn does not make the syle. DAVE

[duckmaster1089]

What i mean by "classical" is does it have a bright, buzzing sound to it. If it does it would be good for jazz not classical. Im looking to see if it has a not really dark, but sort of dark, really warm sound to it. Does it sound focused?

[xuanvu]

Yes, it sounds focused for the sax as a whole, but the "classical" sound that you like would depend on the mpc that you use, not the sax... Some mpc (such as Jody Jazz, Dukoff, etc...) would produce a bright, buzz tone, while a Morgan 1C classical would give you that warm, focused tone.

[duckmaster1089]

thanks

[Paul Coats]

I played two concerts this past week as lead alto/soprano with my sax quartet. I used my Antigua A590-LQ soprano, with Jody Jazz ESP 60 and Fibracell 3 reed. We played a variety of tunes, from Ragtime to Classical.

I can get a much darker tone with a highly modified custom mouthpiece I use for that purpose, but it does not project well in large concert halls such as the one we performed in. I can certainly get brighter, buzzier tones, with other mouthpieces. The ESP seemed to be just right for that situation.

We did a movement from William Grant Still's Lyric Suite, The Quiet One. Lots of palm key notes, dynamics from pp to ff, and it ends on a delicate sustained pp high D that must be perfectly in tune. Not a problem with this instrument.

Paul