buescher true tone alto

[jake]

picked this up today. Think its from the 20’s. pretty cool

[Michael]

Very nice Jake, and an Alto too! Everyone is hooked on Tenor (I am too LOL) but the Alto is such a fantastic instrument. It’s really hard to get any better than those vintage instruments, just wonderful 🙂 What MP are you planning on using with it? I would imagine just something like a good ole’ Claude Lakey MP with a Cane reed would help to really bring out that vintage sound too. I did some looking online and it seems like those line of Saxophones were really big back in the 1920s and 1930s–sometimes I wish I could have grown up during those days, a very special time in music! Check out this video below that was made by Buescher during the late 1920s that shows how they made their Saxophones. Very nice Jake, hope to see you play something on it 🙂

https://youtu.be/2WxkofPZ_K0

[Michael]

The video didn’t post here on Johnny’s site, but the link will still take you to the video.

[jake]

thanks it has such a fat and dark tone as compared to my other altos. it almost a blend of an alto and tenor (especially the lows). i sent my buddy a music sample and he thought i was on my tenor. LOL. i am experimenting with a few mp. I have a claude lakey hr 7*, i got a vandoren jumbo a45, and this sax came with a meyer hr 6. im leaning towards the meyer right now.
i was messing around with night train and this sounds sick. i will def plan on doing some videos with it for sure!! no high f#, good thing johnnys lessons made me learn the forked f#, LOL.

[john]

cool horn Jake. some people when uploading to youtube choose not to allow their video from being embedded on other sites, which is what this guy did that’s why it does’t show.

[Michael]

Hey Jake,
How’s that Vandoren A45 Jumbo MP? I’ve been curious about them because they seemed to have a really nice “buzz” sound and I saw on WWBW.com folks giving them really high reviews, but I also think sometimes we can make the mistake of thinking we HAVE to have a certain MP to get the tone we want v.s. relying on our own technique to get that tone. How are the v.s. the Claude Lakey 7* you have?

[Anonymous]

Jake – if you’ve been playing for 4 years now? i would say your tone is fully developed now (unless you are seriously doing something wrong embouchure wise), so the sensible thing that you are doing now (like the rest of the pro’s) is finding the right mouthpiece for your sax.

The mouthpiece does make a difference (bearing in mind some mouthpieces work better with certain brand reeds), i’ve listened to a pro play on various mouthpieces, and some mouthpiece brands have there heads way above the others, one of them is the A45 Jumbo, i’ve listened to both A45 Jumbos, the vintage blue one is even better.

[Michael]

yes, of course the MP makes a difference, no question about that. But sometimes the answer lies simply in working on our technique. If it’s a player whose been playing a while and has developed his tone really well, put in honest work, etc., then heck yeah look for the right MP…..I was simply making a general statement. We’ve all heard of those stories of people that go on a never-ending search and they end up buying like 20 MPs because the feel it’s the “ticket” to sounding good if you know what I mean. Pick an MP/reed combination that works for us and stick with it, and to do that it does require some experimentation…I think Johnny has used is Guardala/Java Reed combo for like 20+ years or so?

[jake]

I’m at 3 years now James. Still developing. Unfortunately with work and family hard to put in as much time as I would like on the sax.
I will let you know about the mp comparison mike. Too early to make a good comparison as I just got the a45 and Meyer. Will keep u posted.

[Anonymous]

Thats true Michael once you find that awsesome setup (could take a lifetime stack of mouthpieces) – stick with it, if you ask JF you’ll probably find he used several different mouthpiece setups before he found the awesome setup that he hasn’t changed in the last 20+ years.

[Author]

Posts