obtuse
10-15-2003, 05:14 PM
I've recently acquired a vintage American Artist alto sax, which I've decided is a Martin stencil because of the bevelled tone holes. The horn is in very good shape for its age -- ser. no. 4xxx, no front F; it has no dings whatsoever that I can see, the lacquer has worn off due to sheer age, but it still looks good -- uncanny resemblance to the Ref. 54's finish. It also has a beautifully dark and slightly hollow sound and I love its upper range, especially -- very mellow -- even in the altissimo.
The ergonomics are insane, however, and it smells like there was no God. Even after I took it apart and gave it a good scrub down in dish soap and orange scented Pine Sol wipes. (I think that's another indication that it might be a Martin?) The Eb/C mechanism is too close to the right hand keys, I'm constantly hitting the C when I try to get Bb, but that's all manageable. What gets me is the left hand pinky keys; they're so far away, there are gaps between the rollers, and they're nothing but teeny vertical rectangles.
It also has an extra (small) tone hole between the E and Eb (respectively: closed by third finger on right and opened by right pinky) tone holes which I thought might be a quarter tone fingering, which is activated by fingering a D and lifting your right middle finger (holding down the D key closes the E key), but actually functions as a (in tune, even!) D# alternate. I'm not sure why they added that there.
Regardless of all its faults, I think it's a beautiful horn and would love to be able to actually play it comfortably... What can be done about the uncomfortable ergonomics? I don't have much in the way of money, so if it's very expensive, I'll just have to adjust to the mechanism; it isn't so bad as I made it out to be.
I would however like a front F mechanism installed if that's at all possible. Is it an expensive process, or is it relatively common for vintage horns? I've never heard of this being done before, but here's hoping.
And lastly (whew), I've been looking all over for information regarding this brand but have not been able to find anything informative at all. It would be much appreciated if anyone had any knowledge about this horn that they'd like to volunteer just for my own personal knowing of my horn.
Thanks a lot for any help!
-sl
The ergonomics are insane, however, and it smells like there was no God. Even after I took it apart and gave it a good scrub down in dish soap and orange scented Pine Sol wipes. (I think that's another indication that it might be a Martin?) The Eb/C mechanism is too close to the right hand keys, I'm constantly hitting the C when I try to get Bb, but that's all manageable. What gets me is the left hand pinky keys; they're so far away, there are gaps between the rollers, and they're nothing but teeny vertical rectangles.
It also has an extra (small) tone hole between the E and Eb (respectively: closed by third finger on right and opened by right pinky) tone holes which I thought might be a quarter tone fingering, which is activated by fingering a D and lifting your right middle finger (holding down the D key closes the E key), but actually functions as a (in tune, even!) D# alternate. I'm not sure why they added that there.
Regardless of all its faults, I think it's a beautiful horn and would love to be able to actually play it comfortably... What can be done about the uncomfortable ergonomics? I don't have much in the way of money, so if it's very expensive, I'll just have to adjust to the mechanism; it isn't so bad as I made it out to be.
I would however like a front F mechanism installed if that's at all possible. Is it an expensive process, or is it relatively common for vintage horns? I've never heard of this being done before, but here's hoping.
And lastly (whew), I've been looking all over for information regarding this brand but have not been able to find anything informative at all. It would be much appreciated if anyone had any knowledge about this horn that they'd like to volunteer just for my own personal knowing of my horn.
Thanks a lot for any help!
-sl