Cheap vs Expensive Curved Soprano Saxophones

i don't know about you but i've always wanted a curved soprano saxophone for some reason i got three of these things now and in this video we're gonna compare them j metcalf here from bettersacks.com it hasn't always been that easy to find a decent curved soprano most saxophone manufacturers stick to the straight variety with the exception of yana gasawa who have been making a fantastic curved soprano saxophone for decades i already had a great yanagasawa straight soprano and couldn't really justify buying this expensive curved model as well especially since i don't play that much soprano until i had a brilliant idea it occurred to me that the curved soprano saxophone in the case is the only one that fits in all of the airlines carry-on luggage restrictions you know that little box you have to put things in at the airport and no bag actually fits in it well curved soprano saxophone case fits in that box so i said to myself i travel all the time i need to bring a saxophone with me wouldn't it be super convenient to have one of these little cute curved soprano saxophones and not have to worry about carry-on luggage restrictions and that is how i convinced myself to buy this yanagisawa scwo which costs over five thousand dollars just please don't tell my wife how much this one cost i bought it and brought it on one trip last year in late february and then covet happened and i haven't been on a plane since the other two instruments i'm gonna play in this video were sent to me months ago but now that i've got three of these things it makes sense to make a video the first one is this jean-paul usa silver plated curved soprano which sells for about 780 and the next one is this singer's day gold lacquered curved soprano which sells for about seven hundred dollars these two are quite close in price with the gasawa being in an entirely other world price wise costing six or seven times one of these so we're going to jump right into the play test starting with the yanagasawa please comment below as you listen with your thoughts on these three different saxophones [Music] be [Music] da you heard me playing an etude written by the great saxophone player steve cortega who teaches in the better sax studio by the way steve has put together a collection of intermediate etudes to go along with the essential jazz repertoire volume one backing tracks available over at bettertracks.com this one is based on the chord changes to the jazz standard autumn leaves the etude book will be available soon so let's hear the same etude again on the john paul curved soprano [Music] uh [Music] da [Music] the mouthpiece i'm playing on is this jody jazz hr star custom dark for soprano which i absolutely love i'm gonna give you all of my comments and thoughts on these saxophones in a little bit but for now i just want you to listen to all three with an unbiased ear so let's check out the singer's day [Music] da [Music] foreign go ahead and leave your comment below let us know which one of these instruments you prefer the sound of and why now one question i get all the time is how does the sound of a curved soprano compare to the sound of a straight soprano the main difference is that the curved soprano's bell is pointing up and outward just like on an alto or a tenor saxophone this results in a lot more feedback for the player's perspective and anyone who's listening relatively close to the player one of the reasons i like curved soprano is that i find it much easier to record than straight soprano by pointing a microphone between the bell and the keys i pick up a nice full natural sound of the instrument i find with a straight soprano you need to kind of point one mic at the bell and then a second mic at the keys to get the same results curved versus straight makes a big difference to the person playing as well as any microphones but in an acoustic settings the audience is pretty much going to hear the same thing so let me begin by saying that the yanagasaur curve soprano is just about as good as it's ever going to get i would like to be able to tell you that this one sounds so much better than the other two that it would be easy to pick it out in a blind test so let's try it let's listen to five seconds of each one of the three and you let me know which one of them costs five thousand dollars [Music] it's not that easy right i'm not sure i would get it right half the time it's pretty much the conclusion i've come to with all of these play test videos the sound you're getting out of your instrument is almost entirely the player a little bit the mouthpiece and read and then a real tiny amount everything else which is why these very expensive yanagasawas are really best for professionals or people who just have a lot of extra money to spend on saxophones there's no question that this yanagasau is a much better instrument overall than the other two however those differences won't be appreciated or even noticed by most casual players from a player's perspective this yonigasawa has a richer slightly more complex sound it's got more comfortable ergonomics it plays better in tune slightly in the extreme ranges of the instrument it's made with higher quality parts and better materials it comes with a very nice case but that extra 4 300 doesn't really come through so much from the perspective of the listener so now i'm gonna spend the rest of this video comparing the other two sax phones which are gonna be a much more practical choice for the vast majority of saxophone players looking to buy a curved soprano saxophone i find that the singer's day curved soprano has a more similar sound to the onagasawa this may be because the boar of the saxophone is based on the onagasawa i'm not sure i don't really know it does have a nice rich sound to it though ergonomically it's fine but the positioning of the pinky keys both in the right hand and the left hand could be improved they are they're a bit too far away from the ring finger keys they're much closer together on the yanagasa which makes it easier to play and more comfortable the other main difference with the singer's day horn is the neck this neck is basically the same as you would get on a regular straight soprano this would be like the curved version that comes with your two neck straight soprano the yanagisawa and the jean paul saxophones both have a much more curved neck as you can see this doesn't change the sound at all but it does have an effect on where you're gonna position the saxophone um with a less curved neck you're probably gonna hold it out slightly more or you're gonna bend your neck down slightly more fun fact the necks on both of my yanagasawa sopranos are interchangeable that means i can take the necks from my straight soprano and put them on my curved soprano and vice versa the sound doesn't change at all it's really just about the angle the instrument goes in your mouth and the comfort level now taking a closer look at the jean paul soprano i get the impression that it plays a little bit brighter than the singer's day i don't hear that so much on the recordings but while i'm playing it i do get that sensation ergonomically it's comparable to the singer's day i will say the pinky keys are better positioned than on the singer's day not quite as good as diana gasawa there is one thing on this that is kind of a design flaw when i put my finger on the e key it's simultaneously touching the e key as well as this b bell key there needs to be more clearance more room for your finger to go there that's something they should fix in a future uh version of this i know jean-paul usa also offers this same saxophone in a plain gold lacquer and it costs less as far as i know the two instruments are identical other than the finish setup wise they're very comparable i found minimal mechanical play between the keys on both of these instruments both of them have blue steel springs and metal domed resonators both the singer's day and the jean paul have quite nice cases i would give a slight edge to the singer's day case though they both come with not very good mouthpieces so i strongly recommend you upgrade the mouthpiece first were you to purchase either one of these both the singer's day and the jean-paul come with neck straps that cannot really be used with a curved soprano they work fine for outdoor tenor but they're too long that doesn't work for the curved soprano the only neck strap i have that works for curved soprano is the one that came with my yanagasawa curved soprano and it's just the right length the singer's day did come with a set of swabs which do pull through the instrument and are the right size so i will give them a slight edge in the accessories department between these two considering the price you really can't go wrong if that's your budget i give a slight edge to the singer's day in terms of tone and a slight edge to the jean-paul in terms of ergonomics i know they're both made in china but are being shipped from the u.s and are offering free shipping within the us i do think that the singer's day will ship internationally also with free shipping you should check on that at their website of course both instruments do have a return policy again you want to check on their website before you order hope this video is helpful or at least interesting to you now that the travel restrictions are being lifted i'm gonna be taking one of my three curved sopranos with me on my next trip here to guess which one that'll be [Music] ah

Channel: Better Sax

Views: 44,999

Keywords: bettersax, better sax, jay metcalf, saxophone, sax, sax lessons, learn saxophone, how to play sax, alto sax, tenor sax, sax player, sax teacher

Id: 5y3ci3hnkfI

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021