Jazzophone
05-19-2003, 09:41 PM
I don't know if this really fits the parameters of this forum, but I had to put it somewhere.
I just returned from a school trip on a charter boat around the Gulf Islands (off the Canadian West Coast, near BC) and a few days back we anchored at Ganges on Salt Spring Island and hit the open market. At one of the booths -- which apparently is a regular one -- this guy was selling all sorts of wooden and shell instruments he'd made himself, like shell flutes ('ocarina style'), whistles and birdcalls, wooden flutes of varying sizes ... and the Sax-a-flute. I know it's been mentioned a few times here, but this is just another addition to the list of places to find it.
There were three sizes, I didn't check them out in all that much detail but he had them labelled as Small, Medium and Large (sax or coffee?). Basically, a wooden flute type thing, has the shape of a sax mpc on top and fits standard reeds (soprano or alto, I don't know). LH has the thumb hole on the back and three fingerholes, RH has three as well -- that was the smallest one I think, some of them have the fourth, extra holes, and all that jazz. He played it and the tone was pretty cool. Two of them are pitched in A and G, I don't know about the third one ... good stuff, though, and the smallest was 35$ CDN.
I didn't buy one (we just bought a new tenor, YTS-52, about three weeks ago -- my parents would have me for dinner if I brought home another instrument ... though I have a sax and a flute, I still do not have a sax-a-flute) but I am regretting that :shock:
So if anyone manages to hit Ganges, look for the guy with the wooden instruments and check out the saxaflutes.
I just returned from a school trip on a charter boat around the Gulf Islands (off the Canadian West Coast, near BC) and a few days back we anchored at Ganges on Salt Spring Island and hit the open market. At one of the booths -- which apparently is a regular one -- this guy was selling all sorts of wooden and shell instruments he'd made himself, like shell flutes ('ocarina style'), whistles and birdcalls, wooden flutes of varying sizes ... and the Sax-a-flute. I know it's been mentioned a few times here, but this is just another addition to the list of places to find it.
There were three sizes, I didn't check them out in all that much detail but he had them labelled as Small, Medium and Large (sax or coffee?). Basically, a wooden flute type thing, has the shape of a sax mpc on top and fits standard reeds (soprano or alto, I don't know). LH has the thumb hole on the back and three fingerholes, RH has three as well -- that was the smallest one I think, some of them have the fourth, extra holes, and all that jazz. He played it and the tone was pretty cool. Two of them are pitched in A and G, I don't know about the third one ... good stuff, though, and the smallest was 35$ CDN.
I didn't buy one (we just bought a new tenor, YTS-52, about three weeks ago -- my parents would have me for dinner if I brought home another instrument ... though I have a sax and a flute, I still do not have a sax-a-flute) but I am regretting that :shock:
So if anyone manages to hit Ganges, look for the guy with the wooden instruments and check out the saxaflutes.