Progressive Winds is your 21st Century Saxophone Shop, one steeped in the important traditions and skills that are being lost in the rapid acceleration of our culture. One concern of ours is to help players balance their playing to fit into today's world & still continue to be real saxophone players. The saxophone is an acoustic instrument. All acoustic wind instruments can be related directly to the human voice. There is a definite parallel between the volume of singers & wind players. This stayed pretty much the same with wind instruments using a voice level, decibel level until the late 1950's to early 1960's. At that time electric guitars, piano's, bass's & sound systems began to appear in live music.
The saxophone player made his adjustment. Step-baffle mouthpieces & metal or plastic resonators became standard. Thus the voice level saxophone seemingly became a thing of the past. At this time I was (and still am) playing in many situations that today you never see saxophone players in any more because they are too loud. Places like restaurants, small clubs, live ensembles with strings & no amplifiers etc. Well here we are 40 years later still trying to get a more projecting tone.
When the 20th Century began the average size mouthpieces were:
SS .035"-.040"
AS .050"-.055"
TS .060"-.065"
BS .064"-.070"
Today's average sizes are:
SS .062"
AS .080"
TS .105"
BS .120"
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Many say we are way past the point of no return, but I'm definitely for downsizing the mouthpiece. I am also in favor of getting rid of the resonator. I personally have stopped using them in most of my horns & have never been happier. The sound wave feels & sounds more natural. Resonators strengthen the high & midrange frequencies & the sound wave becomes almost square. Altisima without resonators is no longer an uptight crowded (overtones) area. When I need more than this situation allows I now have a set of horns with smaller flat resotec brass resonators which are smaller than I previously used. I think this product is very good.
No one talks to you on their horn with a soft, passionate, delicate voice like Pres, Bean or Frog did anymore. We've forgotten that "less is more". Remember that "more is less". You make the choice. Every sax player should have a sax geared to voice level production for at least practice. The electric saxophone (resonators-step-baffle mouthpiece) is really not needed when you consider that we have wonderful cordless microphones available to project our best efforts without overdoing the acoustical side of things. It's not easy to pad a saxophone without resonators. To make a resonatorless saxophone play efficiently it must be approached like a fine hand made flute. The pads must be firm in their feel with perfectly level key cups, otherwise the instrument looses energy.
This is our latest laboratory experiment. We still believe that there are applications for various types of resonators and we can recommend sets that will best compliment your specific horn, silver, brass, plastic or stainless steel with variations on the shape of these materials. Here at Progressive Winds we have special custom made resonators which are flat for better response & tuning (they don't protrude into the bore as much.)
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We are here to help you, just get in touch with us. Remember also that Vintage Saxophones have a more complex taper. Modern Saxophones such as S-80's are more like one continuous conical taper, producing a very controlling sound. It's impossible on these modern (80's-90's) horns to flex the tone like the vintage voice level sax. We know for sure resonators were not accounted for in the vintage design of Buescher, Conn, King, Martin & Selmer. So before you say horns like Balanced Action Selmers, 10M-6M Conn's , Buescher Artstocrat- 400, The Martin Sax's, etc. are out of tune play some without resonators. Also listen to Bird or Pres, they weren't using resonators. Dexter Gordon played Conn 30M & 10M with a Hollywood Dukoff until 1961 when his horn was stolen in Paris. After this he played resonated Selmers with a Super ToneMaster Otto Link.
The saxophones best suited for classical music, in my opinion, are The Martins (late 40's-50's). They are the only quality heavy wall soldered tone hole sax ever made in modern times. When set-up with the right pads & a close action they seem to be perfect for the delicate formats of classical music. These instruments virtually eliminate the second & confusing sound wave coming off the outside of the instrument. Because of the heavy wall & soldered tone holes, the body does not vibrate on the outside. With the Martin you only hear the sound coming out of the inside of the instrument. Thus resonators may be making your horn vibrate out of phase with itself. It's always amazing to see players play soft delicate music, (many times very well) on an instrument which starts out with a muted mouthpiece (C* Selmer) on a hot fire cracker horn (S-80 metal resonated Selmer). And that is a subject for a future article. Remember when the 1929 stock market crash occurred Conn, Buescher, Martin & King were all making C soprano, F alto & C tenor saxes. These instruments were thought to have a lighter more delicate tone & would work better than the Bb, Eb, models in classical music. Early records indicate that French Concert Bands in the 1880's & 1890's used these models (C,F,C).
The University of Michigan has some excellent books on the history & development of Saxophones. Paul Bros dissertation on the American Companies & Fred Hemkes 2 volumes of Sax History are essential. Hopefully this perspective will give you some interesting things to think about.
©2000 Bob Ackerman Progressive Winds
Tel : 973-375-5859 Fax : 973-375-0036
e-mail pwsax@comcast.net
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