Anyone own a Kessler Custom Bari? Please review!

[TenorDude]

If you own or have played a Kessler Custom Bari, Please review!

This was posted in the Baritone area and received no responses!!!

[pknight]

Yes. It arrived two days ago, so I have not had time to really put it through its paces, but I have the following initial impressions:

First, it is a beautiful instrument. I have the black nickel with gold-plated keys. There is no engraving on this sax, but those acres of nickel plating sure look nice, and the gold keys look great against the black. Also, the construction and "fit" of the sax appear to be very solid. I did not notice anything obvious that would be cause for concern.

Dave Kessler does not say enough about the case in his description of the instrument. It is an ABS case, and in the photos it looked as though it might be similar to cases I have seen with very cheap saxes. In anticipation of it being below my personal standards, I had even begun to look around at bari cases before the sax arrived. However, there will be no need to replace this case. It is very, very sturdy, with four locking latches along the front, and the wheels that are shown on the Kessler web site.

As far as playing the sax goes, my first impression was that I need to get a harness! This is my first bari, after 41 years of playing SAT, and I am going to be stooped over soon enough without hanging this around my neck!

I am playing on the stock mouthpiece that Dave provides with this sax. Also, my current reed selection is extremely limited. The local music store had Vandorens in 2 and 2.5. It only took a few minutes to know that the 2.5 worked much better for me than the 2, and that I need to get a 3 and a 3.5 to figure out exactly where I need to be with this mouthpiece.

Anyway, on to the actual playing. My strongest reaction so far is to how easily both the lowest and highest notes on this sax play, as well as how nice those notes sound. I don't really have any problems with the low notes on any of my other saxes (Antigua 590, YTS-62 and YAS-62II), but I typically have to make some embouchure adjustments above D3. This is neither a problem, nor unusual, but on the Kessler Bari, it is not necessary to make those adjustments. The notes just play.

In general, the sax has a good tone and good intonation. D2 seems a bit stuffy, but I have not yet begun what will be a long process of experimenting with mouthpieces and reeds. Based on experiences with other instruments, I am confident that this can be improved by the right mpc/reed combination, along with more experience with the sax.

The only complaint that I have so far is that the right-hand thumbhook could be a bit lower on the sax body. The position of my hand on the RH stack is more comfortable if I put my thumb right below the hook. I do have relatively small hands, however, so this may not be a problem for some people.

For me, playing time on this sax will be important. I will have to develop a "bari emboucher" after playing the smaller instruments for so long. However, that's all part of the process. The first time I played it, I started out with an arrangement of "Fever" that, except for three notes, is entirely between low A and E1. I learned right away that I needed to use a mouthpiece patch!

In all, I think that this is a very good sax, and an amazing value. I will post more about my impressions and experiences as I have them.

[pknight]

After a few weeks, I am still happy with this bari. I am waiting on some mouthpieces from WWBW (arriving tomorrow according to FedEx) to try out. The stock mp from Kessler seems to be very sensitive to reed placement, with chirping on the upper register if the reed was placed too far back, and increasingly stuffy tone as it was placed further forward. That was with traditional Vandoren reeds. However, with good ol' orange-box Ricos, those problems disappeared.

I did try a Morgan Protone mp, but it resulted in serious intonation problems that were not there at all with the Kessler piece, so it is going back.

I will post the results of my mouthpiece trials later on.

[Bar-Ron]

TRY a Hite artist bari MP or a Rousseau N5 classical for Taiwan horns.
Unless you are going strictly jazz then you may want to lean toward a Berg, with some bite.

I think the Hite can be gotten at Musicians friends.

[pknight]

I have settled on a Yani #5.