Author: ned
Date: 2012-11-22 22:53
You are talking about Boehm system instruments for (mainly, I suspect) classical music.
Well, I'm just a New Orleans style jazz player, so I'm talking just Albert system here. The current favourite horn of the jazz police is a Selmer Radio Improved from the mid 1930s. Big bore = big sound or so it goes. I have played one and............they're great, however..........I can't afford the $5,000 needed to own one of them.
So, I opted for a 17key+6 ring German Oehler system for a year or so, but it would not play in tune, that is to say, I could not bend notes, or lip up and down to accommodate the moment. I believe it's to do with the number of tone holes and vents...............again this is second hand information. Correct me if you know any better.
So after that, I went to a 14 key+ 4 ring 1918 Buffet (medium bore, as I'm informed), it played extraordinarily well in comparison to the Oehler system and I have used it for a decade or more.
But, for some unaccountable reason, it no longer plays as it should, so, recently, I pulled out an ancient Hawkes & Son 12 key+ 2 ring simple system (WW1 vintage, I suspect), which I had purchased 20 years earlier and had refurbished as a stand-by instrument. This, plus a Meyer MP gives me all the volume and tone I have ever wanted.
I'm baffled as to why I ever desired 17 keys and 6 rings!? Perhaps it was the visual appeal and the mistaken idea that I could actually improve my playing with more metal.
With just 12 keys and 2 rings I have all I actually need to play sufficiently fluently in the principal jazz keys of C, Db, Eb, F, Ab, Bb and the occasional Dm and Am.
Oh.......yes......the simple system weighs practically nothing in comparison to the other two. I have no intention of going back.
|
|