Klarinet Archive - Posting 000132.txt from 2003/11

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] please excuse a saxophone question....
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 23:50:00 -0500

At 08:49 PM 11/7/2003 -0800, Frank P. Galiani wrote:
>I've just acquired a 1926 Martin Handcraft, not yet in playing condition. Can
>you tell me anything about this horn, such as what level (student,
>intermediate, etc.), or any other observations about the Handcraft? I've
>played clarinet for a few years but am entirely new to saxophones.

Back in those days they didn't make student horns, so it was the pro model
of the day. Along with Conn and Buescher, all of Elkhart, IN, Martin was
one of the top instrument makers of that time. Martin saxes (even the
stencil models they made for others) can always be identified by their
heavy, soldered-on tone hole chimneys, unlike the usual drawn-from-the-body
type. Be aware that occasionally leaks develop in the solder joints. The
horns tend to be very heavy, and are reputed to have a "dark" sound
(whatever that means). Tex Beneke played Martins back in his Glenn Miller
days, and Art Pepper was also a Martin player.

Henry Martin first established the company in Chicago in 1890, but
production was interrupted by the great Chicago fire in 1906. Martin's
three sons then re-established the company in Elkhart, after leaving their
employment at Conn. (Gus Buescher had also worked for Conn, as plant
foreman, quitting to form his own company in 1888.)

I started playing saxophone sometime after I graduated from college, buying
a C-Melody sax at an antique auction, repadding it, and then learning to
play it. That $50 sax has since cost me a fortune, counting what I have
invested in various saxes of numerous sizes. Of course, they have earned
some of that back on gigs, too. Or, at least, I COULD say that if I had
not spent all the money on various CLARINETS of numerous sizes! Some say
the sax embouchure is vastly different from the clarinet embouchure, but I
don't really see that much difference myself, except that the sax
embouchure is less rigid, and vibrato is encouraged. Fingering in both sax
registers is essentially the same as the clarinet clarion register (the
register key jumps the octave, rather than the 12th) so it is a reasonably
logical double for clarinetists. Good luck on learning sax. Many pit gigs
could come from that! (I'm playing clarinet and tenor for "Bye, Bye Birdie"
locally in December.)

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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