mini saxophone

[Deleted member 48]

a non accordion related topic, anyone ever tried this mini saxophone?


New Mini Saxophone Demo - Stainless steel Small Little Pocket Sax

http://www.minisaxophone.com/

In the past I have tried as a beginner (no time enough to practice the clarinet as a 2nd instrument, never quite developed the required cheek and lip muscle to control sound; metal free reeds are my kind of instruments...) bagpiping a clarinet for 2 years, but I have no experience with saxophones at all.
Maybe some members play saxophone and have an idea of this mini saxophone.

 

[TomBR]

Looks like fun and probably sounds nice although the sound in the clip is quite processed.

BUT (Ok pedant alert!) its not a saxophone! Parallel bore functioning as a stopped pipe (hence the low notes for its size) it belongs to the Chalumeau family, closely related to clarinets, but its not a clarinet because it doesnt overblow. (Saxophone - single reed, tapered bore, functions as an open pipe.)

Quite a few competitors around now, I think one of the best is the Xaphoon, which does overblow and so has a much greater range (using some very ingenious fingering.) I had one to play with for a while, great fun but a bit too loud for playing at home, and I have too many projects already!

Theres also the Nuvo Dood
http://www.clarineo.co.uk/

(Come to think of it, I have a Nuvo Dood for sale! As new condition, good discount off new price! PM if youre interested. In UK.)

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thank you for the extra info about similar instruments.

This is also interesting:

Introducing Erik the flutemakers 2 new saxophones. The Cocobolo Sax and the All Terrain Sax

fascinating

 

[barkis]

How do people now where to drill the holes and the sizes of everything to get the right notes?
Trial and error? Must take a long time if so.

 

[TomBR]

How do people now where to drill the holes and the sizes of everything to get the right notes?
Trial and error? Must take a long time if so.

Theres a video for that!
Brian Wittman inventor and maker of the original bamboo Xaphoon has made so many of them he can just do it by eye, like this!


http://www.xaphoon.com/

 

[Jack Campin]

Miniature parallel-bore single reed instruments must either have limited range or else have weird fingering, vile tone and terrible intonation.

The limited range ones can be good. The best I know of is the non-overblowing version of the Tupian chalumeau; the Sans isn't too bad. The Armenian duduk/Azeri balaban/Georgian duduki/Turkish mey is similar despite using a (peculiar) double reed - accurate intonation is tricky but doable, they're very flexible and expressive.

The xaphoon takes the second option. The absolute pits is the Goldstar bamboo sax; I was given one and it's unplayable junk.

 

[TomBR]

Cmon Jack, dont hold back, tell us what you really think!

 

[Deleted member 48]

There is something holding me back from buying a Xaphoon, and that is the distance between the first fingerhole and the second fingerhole. This gap is bigger than on a recorder, can feel a bit awkward ergnonomically.
The information about the Xaphoon mentions 3 things starting players should get used to.

Like the sound of the Xaphoon, and the pocket size is super !
I would go for a plastic one, the standard in C, if it were not for the gap problem...

 

[JIM D.]

Why not just make your own --

 

[AccordionUprising]

How do people now where to drill the holes and the sizes of everything to get the right notes?
Trial and error? Must take a long time if so.

Ive enjoyed the book,
Musical Instrument Design, by Bart Hopkin (1996)
It goes into detail about the measurements and calculations for making wind and string instruments. Other sources must exist I assume.
http://windworld.com/products-page/books-cds/
Part of the old Experimental Musical Instruments magazine network. Wonderful stuff. Not too many people building their own free-reeds from scratch (without buying reeds, etc), but a few once in a while.