Sax on the Web Forum banner

What the LefreQue?

152K views 597 replies 79 participants last post by  Angel Sampedro del Río 
#1 ·
Sorry about the pun...I couldn't resist!

However, I am obsessed with any accessory that might improve my tone, technique, or artistry with the saxophone. I saw this website and was simultaneously intrigued and amused:

http://www.lefreque.com/home

Has anyone here tried this item? Can you please provide an informed review?

Thanks!
 
#180 ·
Re: What the LefreQue? TEST 2 Giant Steps

I couldn't hear any difference worth noting. Certainly nothing that comes close to the claims. I will say the clips are very consistent. Great job Pete. If i were to pick any of the clips it would be pure guess work, and that certainly doesn't lend much credence to the maker's claims.
 
#181 ·
I don't hear any difference beyond what I think is the normal variability of articulation - actually I am amazed at the almost perfect consistency from take to take. Thanks Pete!
 
#182 ·
Do they make these in different materials? Because everyone knows that a silver lefrique would be more free blowing while a wooden 'frique would have a more earthy tone. A whole new marketing pitch! So instead of just snake oil, it's anaconda oil! It's genius!
 
#187 ·
Your attack at the end seemed to change on some of the Giant Steps clips. I'm going to attribute that to unbridled enjoyment and a surge of emotion. Accordingly, my guesses on Round 2 (Giant Steps) are:

LefreQue: 1, 3, 5, 10, and 11
No LefreQue: 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9

Number 4 was tricky for me. I wouldn't be surprised if you were actually LefreQuing on it.
 
#188 ·
Like most of the others have said, it's amazing how consistently you played all 11 takes. That certainly helped to make this a really valid test IMO because if the Lefreque does make a difference we should hear it. Right? Unfortunately I couldn't distinguish much of any difference at all in the sound of each clip when compared one by one to the baseline clip with no Lefreque. So since I had to make my choices based on something, I made them on the slight hint or nuance of a more resonant fullness that I thought I might be hearing. Then again it could have just been the knowledge that there is "supposed" to be a difference that forced me into deciding that I might be hearing something ever so slightly different.

My decision:

Lefreque = 2 3 5 8 9 11

No Lefr = 1 4 6 7 10

Frankly, the only real way to do a test of something like this is, I think, to get someone who doesn't know what you are testing or that you are even testing something and play him all the takes and ask him/her to tell you if he notices anything different in any of the takes and what it is.
 
#189 ·
Actually, I think the test results are pretty clear. It's too close to tell. How can it possibly live up to the manufacturer's claims if it takes a double blind test to even try to tell the difference. If it were as good as the claims, the results would be obvious and measurable. This one just isn't passing on any level.
 
#190 ·
Maybe people should stop needlessly hating this product?
If people have tried it, and have not noticed any difference, then by all means say so, but there is no need to be so completely negative, especially if people have not tried the product for themselves.

I have no connection to the brand or the creator of the lefreQue, but I use it and notice a minor improvement in the slurring of difficult registers. I perform with it all the time.
 
#201 ·
Well. you gotta start somewhere....Sure i feel connected with those people: to me this sounds like unfair one side of he story kind of critcism by a few selfmade saxophone guru's who maybe should better focuss on 'how to play a scale in tune ' first

Maybe the freal thing will work better then? HA:evil:
 
#214 ·
Come on, Hans! Or is this Tom (a.k.a. "Allwood")? Either way, you guys are being ridiculous. Setting up screen names and shill posts to pump your commercial product is rather Goodsonesque, don't you think? It's one thing to try to make money off an asinine product that works about as well as wearing a pyramid-shaped hat while playing, but it's quite another to come on here and attack an accomplished player (who, ironically, is one of the only people who did not immediately dismiss the possibility that your absurd product might actually work). At least the clown who sells sax lesson hypnosis CDs on eBay just quietly fishes for suckers and doesn't hurl public insults at his critics. Your bushwhack marketing approach is very shortsighted. Call off your dogs, Hans. I'm sure someone will buy your product . . . maybe just not here.
 
#205 ·
I think I have an Idea.............

since the most limiting factor for the vibration of a saxophone body has to be contact with the flesh of our hands ( as we know a saxophone is transmitting micro vibrations akin to those in a triangle) how about using a metal glove when playing?

We could of course use different metals since, as you know, metals have different impact (in this case literally ) on the transmission of these minute but essential vibration we could produce different emotions " registers" by changing metal for the glovesgloves (and how about using two different metal for the glove?).

Steel, for bright and centered sound, copper for warmth and spread, silver for ........ I don't know! Gold is for a rich sound! :bluewink:

What do you think about it? This is a prototype, needs perfecting!

 
#206 ·
Hey, it worked for this guy. He didn't even play a sax but look at the tonal richness and emotion the glove gave him. Wow. This is definitely a killer idea.

 
#208 ·
Well it isn't just the glove, either. It has been attested to by both performers and listeners alike that sequins, such as those worn by M.J. and Elton John, actually reflect and intensify the sound around them, just as much as they do with light. After all, light waves and sound waves are similar--they're waves, they travel through the air, they vibrate and bounce off of things, and they effect us emotionally. In fact they work in tandem, just at different velocities. When a performer wears sequins there is a tingling in the air which everyone notices: it's the intensification of the emotional impact of the sound of the instrument or voice as it is re-radiated by the sequins. Please notice how in this photo all the members of the Sun Ra Arkestra are wearing sequined garments of some type. Why do you think that is?



If wearing sequins while playing a sax improves one's performance appreciably, imagine what custom-fitting your sax and mouthpiece with a sequin-covered finish would do for your playing. The enjoyment heights that could be achieved by such a modification would far surpass any benefits to be gained through the use of the LeFreque, P-Ligging, or power nodes. The mind absolutely boggles thinking about it. Someone needs to pursue this and bring it to the market so everyone can benefit from it.
 
#210 ·
Forget the jacket. A sax with a finish like that would be the Be-All and End-All. Especially if you hung it from a big brass hook attached to that tie she has around her neck. The vibrational possibilities for that combination are ENORMOUS.

But what would I know, I can't even "play a scale in tune " as badly [sic] as "a few selfmade [sic] saxophone gurus" like Pete Thomas. I guess Hans is right and I really do need to get the Lefreque after all.
 
#211 ·
You guys make me smile. No offense to the inventor but this whole thread, and i have read it all, is hilarious. P ligging was a interesting thread as well. Atleast we could all grab some string and try it. I didn't. As far as the pete Thomas comment, well jealousy does wonders for feeble minds. I think, from what I have heard, that Pete is a great player. What do I know I only hang out here, being a drummer at heart!
 
#212 ·
As far as the pete Thomas comment, well jealousy does wonders for feeble minds. I think, from what I have heard, that Pete is a great player.
Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? And this after Pete bent over backwards to give this gimmick a scientifically controlled and totally honest and objective series of trials. On top of that, since Pete played more than half of the samples with the Lefreque, how can this guy deride Pete's playing? He can't have it both ways. Either it makes everyone sound better like their webhype says, including pros who should sound even better yet, or the thing does nothing to change anything that anyone at all plays.

BTW Hans, or whoever you are, I know English is not your first language so the mistake is understandable, but I'll point out that the word you meant to use was "self-proclaimed" and not "self-made". A person who is self-made, as in self-made millionaire, is a person who begins life with nothing, and by dint of hard work and superior abilities becomes extremely successful at some chosen endeavor, be it business, science, or the arts. It's a highly positive quality, not a put-down, like we understand you intended it to be.
 
#215 ·
Thanks Pete et al. Your willingness to put in all this effort in the search for understanding is commendable.

One day when I have time I will sit down and figure out the math on the impact on sound waves being reflected off vibrating surfaces. I know there has to be an effect, but my guess is the effect is way way up there in frequency and of very small amplitude.
 
#216 ·
Stop the presses! there is something new in Vibration-enhancement-land the RESONANZRING http://www.saxophon-service.de/homep/Resonanzring.html



this ring promises to radicallychange the sound and the response of the saxophone.

Up until now, rings were only used to enhance sexual performance but that is no longer the case!

You can now get a long and powerful action with prolonged resonance by just applying a ring to the connection between neck and saxophone body to communicate the precious vibrations that would otherwise be lost

Dare I say that rings of diverse metals would influence the sound differently? How about combining the ring technology with the magic of the Cannonball stones?

Get a ring with a stone! (it will certainly feel like passing one if you get a diamond) and impress everybody else, especially girls with it.

A diamond is forever! Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend!

( afterthought..........for those who might not get it, there is a fair dose of sarcasm in my announcement........:bluewink:)
 
#217 ·
These rings are on the market for a long time. I've tried several of them when they were released and there was no marketing behind them. To my ears and the ears of colleagues who tried them they didn't change the sound at all but sometimes they can have an influence on the playing feel, positive or negative, real or imagined. They are installed between horn and the neck. What really is stupid about them is versions of different materials and different sizes (how big the metal is to the side and not in the height). It could have an influence because it will lenghten slightly the air column in the horn. They sell pretty good and some well known players in Germany talked good about them. I don't use one and think it is a waste of money.
 
#219 ·
It could have an influence because it will lenghten slightly the air column in the horn. They sell pretty good and some well known players in Germany talked good about them. I don't use one and think it is a waste of money.
It looks to me like what they will do would be exactly the same as not quite pushing the neck tenon all the way into the receiver so of course it might make a slight difference to sound and/or intonation. I would not assume there's any difference between using a ring or just not pushing the neck al the way in.

I'm not going to bother testing them.
 
Top