Grafton plastic tenor sax?

[CMelodyMan]

Does anyone know if a plastic Grafton tenor sax was ever produced?

[paulwl]

They never did make a tenor. Presumably they wanted to first get all the bugs out of the alto, biggest one being that the screw holes in the plastic wore out quickly and that made the horn impossible to keep in adjustment. I think this is what finally did the Grafton in as a concept.

[Merlin]

Keep an eye out for pics of a Grafton alto in the SOTW calendar when it comes out. I've actually played that instrument, though it was badly out of adjustment.

There was apparently a tenor planned, and they may even have made a prototype, but it never went into production.

[DanY]

The plastic used in the the Grafton alto was very brittle, more like bakelite.
If you dropped the horn it would shatter.

It was not designed to be maintained.

I bought a Grafton for $30 from a farmer about 7 years ago. Then I spent over $1000 trying to get it playable. In the end I sold it on ebay.

I still believe that making saxophones out of plastic/ polymer/ carbon-fibre is an excellent idea.

[vick]

I read that a tenor was in the works but plastics technology just wasn't up to par to build it.