Hello. I have lately been in contact with a person selling what he describes as a c soprano saxophone. it has no makers name, no markings and appears to be keyed from low Bb to high Eb. I asked him to measure the length of the horn and he said it was approximately 23". Most c sopranos appear to be between the 22" to 22.5" in length. he says with the original mouthpiece it plays ' a few cents flat ' but also states that the mouthpiece is not pushed right to the octave pip. question is, is it a c soprano or a HP Bb? thanks for any help you might give me.
I find that the C sopranos like to be tuned on the sharp side so you can lip down the notes that are on the sharp side and thus keep the flat notes workable.
Do you have any suggestions for a modern case? This original case it came in is lacking something in terms of actually protecting the horn, worse than most really old cases. What's a good fit for the (22") c soprano?
Find a standard modern Bb case that is made for the removable neck horns. Most of the C sops I have had fit perfectly as the Bb neckless body is about 22".
I tell you something, I am not going to tune my $4000 string bass almost half a step high just to please some guy who thinks he got a bargain on a high pitch saxophone.
Tuning string instruments higher than standard pitch is a good way to permanently damage them.
well, modern tuning of string instrument made many hundreds of years ago has already altered substantially many times and by the way, steinway pianos were tuned at 457Hz in 1881 so, chances are that the string instruments which played at the time where steinways were were tuned in the same pitch. The Cincinnati Orchestra tuned at A=456Hz. They will have had plenty of string instruments tuned in high pitch.
Cool! Bring me a Steinway from 1881 or a double bass from the same time period (with gut strings) and I'll consider it. Not my 20 year old carved bass with steel strings, thank you very much.
Go tell a jazz guitarist with a Selmer Maccaferri guitar to tune to A 457 and see how that goes. Or a prewar Martin D-28.
I used to be in a small group.with a brilliant guitarist who always tuned 'just a tad high' - and then would never come down because "quote - it sounds lifeless at 440...". The bass player humoured him.
That was workable on saxes, but, when my (admittedly cheap) flute needed a few mm off the headjoint as I always sounded flat - it was time to rebel ! Came in the low-tech form of some antique guitar pitch pipes....
I had an HP C clarinet for a while - great fun at home, and in recordings where I could manipulate the pitch - totally anti-social animal in a gigging environment. Sad but true.
I just acquired (from Bruce, in a completely satisfactory transaction) a C soprano - I would say that the intonation is more "sensitive" than "troublesome". Coming from mostly playing baritone for the last 30 years or so, I am having trouble controlling it (and the Bb soprano) but I believe that is due to me. A change in voicing that would yield a minor timbre change on baritone will bend the pitch a half step on a soprano.
I can't honestly compare soprano either C or Bb to flute since I've been playing flute for a very long time, but my initial impressions would be that it takes a lot more fine embouchure control to play each note in tune on a soprano than on a flute. I've never played an oboe at all.
One place where C soprano might be useful would be if you had a big band part for flute that was fairly complex (hence hard to read and transpose at sight on a Bb soprano) and covered up in the instrumentation. Certainly the soprano will project way better than a flute. But, it won't sound a bit like a flute. That particular flute timbre is often the thing you want for those parts.
I suppose that any guitarist or bass player owning an expensive instrument would have a less expensive instrument in their possession to " risk" its tuning it at A=457Hz.
I doubt that the neck would bend or the soundboard crack.
I begin seeing where this nonsense of tuning at A=432Hz started
protect you ears .........
this is how a Conn soprano in high pitch A=457Hz. plays with a low pitch tuned A=440Hz. piano
but if you like A=457Hz, why don't you buy the full album?
FYI - The tension increase of tuning a 1/4 step sharp is small on all stringed instruments. The change in tension of different string brands is likely higher, all being label mittel, much less stark. There's no need to reduce the string gauge. Also, for upright, solo strings are already tuned a full step sharp, so those would actually be detuned to match A = 457 hz.
For all the discussion, I bet the number of times an HP instrument has showed up at a jam or session, is about none. If its a studio session, you are being paid to play. You get to tune your instrument how ever is needed. That's why strings have tuners, and keyboards [now] have pitch correction. For those who are squeamish, pass on my info to the studio please
Umm, stringed instruments, You can be at 440 on a hot summer day outside (i.e. at a gig), take that instrument put it in the case and take it home to the Air conditioning, remove it from the case and it may damn well be near 432 all on it's lonesome....talking about tuning up a guitar or stand-up bass (Huge, long *** strings) to 432....as Mal 2 put it, give me about 20 seconds.
On the other hand, if you are playing a gig on that hot sunny Summer day, it does you no good to "tune up" prior to the gig, as your guitar leaves the comfort of it's case in the AC of the car, as it acclimates to the temps, by the time you hit the stage, you are a half step down. You have to check your tune moments before heading to the stage, ever wonder why the guitar player always comes on stage with his guitar on?? Now you know...
Oh, you wanna drop half step for the singers voice? give me another 20 seconds I'll be ready. Guitars and bass (yes, even stand-up) can go up and down all day long without issue. Stop kidding yourselves on that one
As far as a HP Horn....where will it live?? Milandro can be so abrasive at times, but I gotta agree with him on this one....where will a HP horn fit in? Labor or Love if you want to repair that horn, but hell with HP, You can't even play along with YouTube videos in your leisure time as you are off key.
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