Few years ago I attended some amateur sax classes in Amsterdam and one of the fellow students there had a magnificent French silver sax, a Dolnet Bel Air Alto.
I had a humble but nicely sounding Dixon alto, the usual boring copy of a modern Selmer, and every now and again exchanged saxophones with my friend while playing during our lessons. Well, I always loved that sax and after a few years (a couple of months ago that is....) decided it was time to buy myself something new...... Got on the internet and finally found the Dolnet of my dreams, sleeping peacefully somewhere in a small town nearby.
Full of excitement I drove there. I couldn't believe my eyes, the sax appeared to be of a very early vintage, the serial number would probably make it from around the beginning of the 1939-40.... 35XXX, well, the World War II years really, or, at most, just after WW II (Dolnet has very, very poor records of the production serial numbers).... .
The instrument sounded good (!) and looked very, very little used for its age..... I brought it to the trusted (!) technician which found it to be very good indeed and so I left for the season's holiday leaving my new baby in safe hands for a complete overhaul.
When I got back called my technician and asked if the sax came out alright , " yes" he said, "...and the intonation? " I asked, " perfect! " he said...... .
Well I took the sax the same day to a session and I couldn't play in tune , yes, it must have been my fault........new sax, new mouthpiece, too many things new...... . Got back to the technician who said that he had checked it alright and must have been me, I had to get used to the new sax.........
The next time I asked the session leader to take a look at my sax......he said after a while : " I know what the problem is.....your sax is a high pitch! " Couldn't believe it but after a number of trials and mainly errors, I had to capitulate......
Always bring a tuner when you go to buy a second hand old saxophone, now I know it, 25 dollars worth of tuner would have saved me plenty of money which a carelessly spent (threw out really).....B.T.W., the technician lost a good customer forever........
I had a humble but nicely sounding Dixon alto, the usual boring copy of a modern Selmer, and every now and again exchanged saxophones with my friend while playing during our lessons. Well, I always loved that sax and after a few years (a couple of months ago that is....) decided it was time to buy myself something new...... Got on the internet and finally found the Dolnet of my dreams, sleeping peacefully somewhere in a small town nearby.
Full of excitement I drove there. I couldn't believe my eyes, the sax appeared to be of a very early vintage, the serial number would probably make it from around the beginning of the 1939-40.... 35XXX, well, the World War II years really, or, at most, just after WW II (Dolnet has very, very poor records of the production serial numbers).... .
The instrument sounded good (!) and looked very, very little used for its age..... I brought it to the trusted (!) technician which found it to be very good indeed and so I left for the season's holiday leaving my new baby in safe hands for a complete overhaul.
When I got back called my technician and asked if the sax came out alright , " yes" he said, "...and the intonation? " I asked, " perfect! " he said...... .
Well I took the sax the same day to a session and I couldn't play in tune , yes, it must have been my fault........new sax, new mouthpiece, too many things new...... . Got back to the technician who said that he had checked it alright and must have been me, I had to get used to the new sax.........
The next time I asked the session leader to take a look at my sax......he said after a while : " I know what the problem is.....your sax is a high pitch! " Couldn't believe it but after a number of trials and mainly errors, I had to capitulate......
Always bring a tuner when you go to buy a second hand old saxophone, now I know it, 25 dollars worth of tuner would have saved me plenty of money which a carelessly spent (threw out really).....B.T.W., the technician lost a good customer forever........