It looks interesting - rolled tone holes in a modern instrument?
Anyone any actual hands on experience?
Anyone any actual hands on experience?
The problem is that many, many soprano players are fans of curved necks, whether detachable or fixed. If a company's single professional-level soprano in 2017 has a fixed straight neck, then a big chunk of the market will be uninterested in the horn.He said that he had never been a fan of sopranos with detachable necks. "The part of the body that is cut [for the joint] is where the octave break is, and these horns are never easy to play octaves. That goes for all sopranos with a detachable neck."
Er, is that so?He said the ProOne series are the only saxophones made today with any innovations
That's just baloney. This statement, coupled with the one above, suggests that Ponzol's ProOne soprano sales strategy is, "My horn is great because the others are bad," which is about the least credible approach that a designer might take.He said his goal with the soprano was to make it sound "like a saxophone, not a kazoo, which is what most modern sopranos sound like."
But all opinions are not equally valid. An opinion is not the same thing as an expression of personal taste. It's one thing to say, "I don't like the sound of all those horns," which expresses a completely subjective preference that, though possibly eccentric, can't be described as "wrong." It's another thing entirely to claim that most non-ProOne sopranos sound like kazoos. That's wacky, and also self-serving.Well, his opinions are his opinions. As valid as anyone's opinions.
Players who prefer straight necks have plenty of choices and probably always will. The point is that players who like curved necks better are not being served by Antigua (at the pro sax level). Most large manufacturing companies ensure that the options they offer cover everything that a substantial number of their potential customers value highly, whether or not the people in the company personally prefer those choices. What if Vandoren's chief reed designer said, "I don't care for unfiled reeds, so we're not going to offer any"?I do think the momentum in the demand for detachable necks is starting to shift. Even a one-piece, curved neck apparently introduces a number of acoustical issues that must be dealt with by the player or the mouthpiece. These issues are pandemic in other sax voices and go largely unnoticed since they are all held in common. Mr. Ponzol is not the only well-informed player who does not care for detachable necks.
When the ProOne soprano appeared, my first reaction was, "Who needs 'trident' bell key arms on a soprano?" It seemed to me like a case of overdesign -- a solution in search of a problem. I believe I suggested here in another post that the real impetus behind the inclusion of this feature on the sop was to avoid omitting a "signature" technology of the ProOne line, whether or not it really helped on the soprano. I still think that is probably true.I have no direct experience with Antigua Pro One and presume, as are many Taiwan saxes, that they are well made and play well. But, the hype is off-putting, sounding more like it comes from "he who shall not be mentioned" in Nola. For example, when was the last time your bell keys fluttered open or haven't we proved often enough that the size of the bell rim doesn't make for a bigger sound. And, how about rolled tone holes making a spread sound?
Thanks for the review. Did you mean the sax was not made with a bis key, or was the bis non-functional?…The spring on the A had popped off entirely resulting in sticking and no Bis (which is my main Bb),…