Martin Handcraft Troubadour

[Jonathan C.]

As many of you know from my Sig. I have a Troubadour, and though I love the horn, I am having some problems with it. For instance I love the way it sounds, I just want to it to project. Its a great little piece, and it is easy to play. I would just like more.
Any of you other Troubadours owners/players have the same problem?

[ThunderWhale]

I play tested one owned by a local tech. I liked using a Morgan "L" chamber on that particular horn. Very loud and full sound with little edge and a lot of pure volume. I like that type of sound!

[bruce bailey]

Mine is the loudest of all my Martins. I use a Selmer Super Session and it really wails. Are you sure it is covering well? Play softly down to low Bb and see if you find a point where the resistance greatly increases. Drop a leak ligh inside and look for leaks at the pads AND where the tone holes meet the body. They rarely leak but it can happen.

[Bootman]

These are great Martin saxes, largely unsung but they do play incredibly when set-up well.

[Jonathan C.]

Thanks Bruce. I love the way it sings, its got the sweetest voice of any sax I have played. I will check out the potential leak. Thanks.

[Bootman]

Try a Runyon custom on the Martin alto.

[Martin Magna Commitee Sax]

does your Troubadour have resonators? My martin sounded like it was playing into a closet until I put plastic selmer resonators on it. It was a vast improvement over the undersize flat metal resonators that originally came with the horn.

[Jonathan C.]

Mine has the flat metal resonators. Next time it needs a repad, I will probably get idfferent resonators.

[SAXISMYAXE]

Carbs,

You'll get the added projection and cutting edge if you give that Morgan Jazz MP I've been telling you about a chance. Ditto Bootman's suggestion of the Runyon Custom, which I also favor greatly.

Plastic Dome resonators are what I use in most of my Martins, but there is nothing wrong with the flat metal resos either. I think an appropriate change in your MP setup will fix your problems, that and filling the horn up with plenty of air. Martins can blow a wall down, so it isn't the horn.

[Jonathan C.]

I was figuring the Runyon would be the first one I tried. Hey Mike, could you send me the wwbw page for the morgan Jazz. And is that a Metal or rubber?

[SAXISMYAXE]

Hi Carbs,

WWBW only lists a couple of his mouthpieces for sale, and the Alto Jazz model isn't one of them. It's a HR MP, but Ralph stopped using WWBW as a retail seller of his mouthpieces ages ago. I don't know why they still offer them in their catalog, as to the best of my knowledge, he no longer ships to them.


Dave Hoskins at Junkdude.com is the authorized retailer and distributor of Ralph Morgan products, and has the best inventory of in stock Morgans. Here is a link:

I like the "L" Large Bore model for the Martins. Still plenty of projection and edge.

https://www.junkdude.com/morgan_saxophone_models.aspx

[bruce bailey]

I still think the horn has a leak. A troub should blow the house down with any mouthpiece. Mine has rivet pads and it is just fine.

[SAXISMYAXE]

I still think the horn has a leak. A troub should blow the house down with any mouthpiece. Mine has rivet pads and it is just fine.
You may very well be correct. My Martins aren't shrinking violets with any mouthpiece combo, and all speak very easily throughout the range too.

[Jonathan C.]

I am looking at the Runyon Custom. And will be ordering one today from WWBW. As for the Morgan. I am going to wait and see what the Runyon can do. If I am not happy with the sound I am getting I will look at the Morgan.
Thanks for the replies.

I am going to bring the horn to my Private lesson for my teacher to take a look at it.

[bruce bailey]

Many vintage horns are not happy with modern high baffle mouthpieces which I think is because of how the neck is configured. The low end of the horns will be hard to play and often have the gurggle. Martins are not one of those horns. I find that ANY mouthpiece will work on them.

[SAXISMYAXE]

Martins, and in at least MY brace of Kings, are the least mouthpiece fussy of the vintage horns in my trials and tribulations of horn ownership as well.

Having said that, they are tremendously flexible in overall sound and application when the setup is changed, so experimenting with mouthpieces pays dividends.

[Jonathan C.]

I am taking it to a tech today, and will hopefully have an answer tonight. I am getting kinda sad about how much work it is requiring. It is it's fourth trip to the tech, in like 2 months. Did I buy a Lemon?
I ordered the Runyon Custom 6, from WWBW yesterday, so it will hopefully be in the mail today. I will keep you posted with what the tech. says.

[davevillajr]

That's a lot of tech work in a short period of time. How are you transporting your instrument? If you use a soft sided gig bag, you need to be really careful how you set it down, where you set it down, etc. My repair guy hates gig bags. If you are using the original case, the horn may be getting knocked around if the original padding has collapsed. Maybe you have a gremlin living in your house who kicks your horn around when you aren't around.

hope this helps

dv

[Jonathan C.]

I am using my Protech coutoured case. Its not a bag, and has always served me pretty good.

[Jonathan C.]

Update.
I got the Martin back from the shop today, and today I got the Runyon Custom in. I immeadiatly tried it out, and the mouthpiece sounded great on the Yamaha. Not the horn it was ment for. On the Martin I got a motorboat sound. When I put in the reedsaver to try to stop it, I got a super amount of resistance. This is the Custom on a 2.5 Vandoren Blue Box. Should this be happening? It sounds great with my Selmer Mouthpiece, but other than that it is just awful. A whole bunch of resistance. In about a week I am about to case it up, and put it in the closet till I can figure out, what I should do with it. Any ideas on what could be the problem?

[bruce bailey]

Pad leak, tone hole leak, G# not adjusted, small C pad in LH not adjusted, neck not sealing. Drop a mpc in the bell to see what happens.

[Sergiosax]

If the instrument is set up well should be quite a monster.. I have an Imperial Handcraft tenor, and it sounds great with a Brilhart Ebolin (Vandoren Jazz 3,5) when I want a good control, and it really screams with a metal Ottolink STM 7* (Rico Royal 1,5). Perhaps worth a try...

[Jonathan C.]

I solved the probelm with reed placement. However with the mouthpiece, they gave me a Plastic Lig. So today I am going to replace that. Probably a Rovner Dark, I will just see when I go to the store. Other than that, the horn sounds great. A little restricted, but hopefully nothing I can't fix. I will let you guys know with an update.

[Jonathan C.]

I have found a
The Martin Alto,
and the serial number is 304452? What year is it?

~Carbs

[bruce bailey]

That would be from the late 60s after the Wurlitzer buyout. Are you sure it is a "the Martin" and not an Imperial or Medalist?

[Jonathan C.]

Yeah, I will PM you the link.

[bruce bailey]

Looks like a Medalist or Imperial.