interesting day today

[sxpoet]

as an Alto sax player, it’s been bugging me recently, should i swap it for a Tenor sax.

Well guess what, i went to my local Sax shop today, and tried out the yamaha 280 and 480 tenor sax’s, the student 280 was nowhere as good as the 480 in terms of sound and key response.

But i’m glad i tried them, as i now know that i don’t like the Tenor sound that i get while i play a Tenor sax. To me and thats just my opinion. but don’t get me wrong i love to listen to tenor sax recordings, it’s just not for me.

The shop also had the yamaha 62 tenor and a selmar 6 tenor, but after trying the other 2 tenor sax’s i didn’t bother trying any more.

But on a positive note, i got two free reeds, as samples, a clarett d’adario no 3 reed and a alto vandoren v21 no 3 reed, which sound better than the current reeds im using.
apparently vandoren have brought out fibre reeds recently. Unfortunately all the fibre reeds that i’ve tried in the alto dont work as well over all over the whole sax range, so i might try out the vandoren range.

[sxpoet]

https://vkreeds.com/en/

[sxpoet]

seven years research to produce a synthetic reed by vandoren

[saxomonica]

Sounds interesting!

VK Link says

‘Due to limited availability VK products are currently available only in the USA‘

‘The VK reed is currently only available for Clarinet‘.

Thangs may have changed, the only constant is change! Looks like you may have to give ’em a swing on your clarinet, James? Cheers Mark

🙂

https://www.ozwinds.com.au/vandoren-vk1-synthetic-clarinet-reed.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOdM8Al2QeWZik0VrhEqx3uUb_iFEEwLEqJbkygaCSOCYADTLcJc5ARoCKPcQAvD_BwE

[sxpoet]

the guy who runs the shop, was telling me they often get new sample reeds to try out and thats how i got my free reeds. I think he said a few other shops had received a couple of vandoren reeds to try out, once they up their production, they should start supplying here. Thats a big step for vandoren as they were committed to only produce cane reeds.
I can see them bringing out sax synthetic reeds next, probably still testing them out?

[sxpoet]

i shall have one more attempt at trying out the Tenor sax YTS480 or YTS62.
I play ‘Fly me to the Moon’ in C Major on the Alto sax, i’m used to hearing it in played in C Major.

when i tried out two Tenor Sax’s, i played ‘Fly me to the Moon’ using the same Key positions as on the Alto C Major. When i got home, i realised that i should have played ‘Fly me to the moon’ in F Major.

So i’m going to go back and try out the Tenors in F Major. I kept wondering in the sax shop why it sounded so different. DOH

[Leo Salu]

SXPOET I recently got a YTS62, and I love it. Funny what was a little tricky getting used to was how easy it was to get a note (lower or higher) than my YTS23 I found I was blowing a lot harder than needed and the keys were so much quicker, but after a few hours playing it just got easier and easier. Highly recommend the 62. BTW I use a Otttolink number five with a variety of Fiberreeds, got to love those Fiberreeds, they go on forever. Johnny sells them on his site. (Favorite is the hemp)

[sxpoet]

thanks for the info Leo!

Next time i visit my local sax shop, i’ll definitely try out the yts62. I haven’t played Tenor sax’s so i don’t know how well they work with fibre reeds, but i do know on my Alto i couldn’t find any fibre that worked well across all the notes, mid range notes were okay, higher range notes were rubbish and lower notes weren’t as good.

my daughter used to play my clarinet with a fibre reed and you couldn’t tell the difference, that’s probably why Vandoren have only just produced fibres reeds for the clarinet. They haven’t brought out a sax fibre reed yet, probably still testing them out.

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