I thought it might be interesting to fire off an opening volley about some of the horns I’ve been playing. Some of them I’ve been playing for quite a while and some are relatively new additions to the arsenal but all have stories associated with them.
I’ve always considered myself to be primarily a tenor player and I’ve been playing on the same horn since 1980. It’s a Selmer Mark VI and I bought it to replace my previous VI that had been run over by a car – but that’s probably a story for another time. I was working at King’s Dominion in VA at the time and I needed a new horn right away so I went to Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Wheaton, MD and tried out the only used VI they had in the store at the time. I really had very little time to try it out and I just bought it and hoped for the best. Fast forward to today and this tenor has been my nearly constant companion for 32 years. I absolutely love this horn. I have no idea whether it’s a “holy grail” VI but I imagine it isn’t (the serial number is 144K) but all I know is I know this horn like the back of my hand and it’s paid for itself many, MANY times over. I have a back-up horn that I really only pull out when the VI is in the shop because it is so completely different from what I am used to. It’s a Conn 10M but it’s definitely not one of the sought after ones. From what I can tell from the serial number it’s probably one that was made after they moved all production to Mexico. It plays fine actually but the ergonomics are very uncomfortable for me and the position of the strap hook should really be moved. It’s also so much more spread than my VI. I am currently using a Phil Barone Super New York 7* with Van Doren Java 3.5 (Green Box) reeds.
My second sax has been bari for many many years as well. I have a Selmer bari as well but I really don’t know anything else about it (model, etc.). It really doesn’t say what it is but the serial number range seems to fall in the Mark VII period although I’ve been told that Selmer never made Mark VII baris. I bought this horn new and it has also paid for itself many times over. It is a low A bari but it doesn’t have any fancy engraving on the bell other than the Selmer logo. I’ve never really thought much about looking up what it is or when it was made because it always plays and it’s held up from years and years of work so it really doesn’t matter much to me. It’s just a great, honking horn and I love it. I use a Lawton 8*B with La Voz Medium Hard and I’ve been using that same setup for almost as long as I’ve owned the horn (although I used to use regular Rico 4’s back in the old orange box days).
My alto and soprano are pretty recent acquisitions and both are Asian made horns. My alto is a Buffet 400 which I believe was made in China. It’s actually a really nice horn…a little on the darker side than some other horns out there but I probably couldn’t play alto with a real shrill sound after spending so many years at the lower end of the sax spectrum. I use a Phil Tone Custom .080 (which is now called the Aurora) with Van Doren Java 3 (green box) reeds. My soprano is a Phil Barone Classic and I think these horns are made in Taiwan. Both of these horns have antique bronze finishes by the way. This is the newest sax for me (I just bought it a couple years ago) and I’m still trying to get my head wrapped around it conceptually but it plays really well and the intonation is actually pretty good. I just use the Phil Barone hard rubber mouthpiece that came with it (7) with Java (green) 3’s.
I’ll spend another post talking about the two Phil’s and the work they do later.
I also play an Armstrong flute (I think it’s the 80 model) that I have owned since I was in high school with a handmade wooden head joint made by a guy named Juan Novo and a Buffet R13 clarinet I bought while I was on the road with the Glenn Miller Orchestra many years ago. I pretty much only pull the clarinet out once a year when I do a big band Christmas concert but it’s a nice free blowing clarinet. I use some kind of Bay mouthpiece with Van Doren 3 reeds (really not sure which one right now but it’s one of the classical varieties and might be considered new old stock by now.
I also play a lot of EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) but that’s a story for another day too.
