Klarinet Archive - Posting 000258.txt from 1998/09

From: Mitch Bassman <mbassman@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Straight altos [was Re: [kl] C-straight soprano sax]
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 15:32:45 -0400

At 11:12 AM 9/8/1998 -0700, Grant Green wrote:
>I haven't heard the straight altos and
>tenors, but I suspect they have a slightly different timbre as compared
>with the normal curved varieties.

Very different timbre, Grant. I played a straight alto at a sax symposium
about a year and a half ago. I wish I could remember which brand it was.
Definitely not a Selmer. I believe it may have been a Keilworth. Anyway, my
first reaction was that I was listening to someone else in the room playing
an alto sax. The sound seemed so far away. The instrument had a great
response and a very mellow sound, but the sound seemed to come from the
floor rather than directly back at me from the bell. When I played the
similar model in a curved version, it seemed to have more presence.

Mitch Bassman
Burke, Virginia, USA

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