Vibrato sax
Vibratosax is the product name of the saxophones made of plastic by the Thai manufacturer Vibrato.
Vibrato Co., Ltd. is the only manufacturer of saxophones whose parts are mainly made of plastic processed by injection molding due to a worldwide patent . Currently only the " Alt " design is available, tenor and soprano (curved design) have been developed and announced.
Historical reference - the "Grafton Acrylic Saxophone"
Between 1950 and 1968 the Grafton saxophone , an alto saxophone with a body made of plastic, was available, which had very good musical properties and so u. a. played by some of jazz's greatest legends - Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman .
In addition to its high weight, the saxophone had the disadvantage that the cream-white acrylic glass used , which was shaped in the low-pressure casting process , was very brittle, so that the body was easily irreparably damaged, especially on the knee. The high weight of the instrument resulted mainly from the mechanics, which were made relatively conventionally from metal. The manufacturer had to give up after a few years because - in relation to the relatively low sales price - high production costs and low market acceptance.
Due to the advances made in about 50 years in terms of plastic qualities and manufacturing techniques (keyword: thermoplastic injection molding process ), the businessman and passionate saxophonist Piyapat Thanyakij, who lives in Bangkok, decided in 2009 to adopt the concept of the plastic saxophone, with its advantages. a metal saxophone - u. a. Low weight, robustness (using modern plastics), consistently precise reproduction of the body parts - to be revived in the form of the Vibratosax.
Construction of the vibrato alto saxophone
The vibrato instruments achieve an extremely low weight due to the consistent use of plastic (in addition to the body, also in the mechanics). B. in the A1 models with approx. 850 g is only about a third of the weight of conventional alto saxophones, which usually weigh well over 2 kg.
The saxophones are also very resistant to mechanical damage and corrosion, which u. a. was impressively demonstrated in a video in which the Hawaiian saxophonist Reggie Palida plays a vibrato sax A1S above, in and “under” water while riding the waves.
The body consists of numerous glued parts. The straight main pipe is divided 6 times across, the knee, the bell and the S-bend each lengthways. The mechanism consists of smaller plastic parts that are mounted on aluminum rods with a hexagonal cross-section. The individual flaps are secured to the body with screws and tensioned by coil springs . The cushions are made of silicone and are connected to the mechanism without glue.
The only larger metal part is a brass tube at the end of the S-bend that uses foam instead of cork to accommodate the mouthpiece . The saxophone can be played with any mouthpiece for alto saxophone. In addition, the instrument is delivered with its own mouthpiece, which is white like the body. The S-bend is sealed against the body with an O-ring and has an unusually small, underlying mechanism.
Models and series
| pitch | Model / series | Weight | Launch | Production status | annotation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old | A1SIII | approx. 850 g | July 2015 | in production | |
| A1SII | 201? | set | Not yet on the market. | ||
| A1SG | 201? | set | Limited to 25 pieces, made of polycarbonate with glass admixture for higher body density and thus reduced vibration. | ||
| A1S | 201? | set | |||
| A1 | 2010 | set | |||
| soprano | S1 | unknown | expected: 2017 | in preparation | |
| tenor | T1 | unknown | expected: 2017 | in preparation |
The first edition was offered in two models, which differed in the body material used, which was made visually recognizable by the different colors of the flap pads. The A1 (gray upholstery) was a little cheaper and had a slightly “darker and warmer” tone than the A1S model, which was recognizable by the orange upholstery.
The plastic used for the A1 was a “blend” (a mixture) of ABS (rather soft, easy to process, very good surface quality) and polycarbonate (rather hard and dimensionally stable, tends to be more difficult to process, can be made crystal clear). A “pure” polycarbonate was used for the A1S model (technical plastics are generally provided with smaller amounts of additives to improve their properties, so they are never completely “pure”).
The connection between the mechanical properties of the body material and the subjectively perceived sound is interesting (see section " Sound and feel "). What sounds better is not a question of price, but of taste, and so professional saxophonists in particular who were interested in the A1 have often opted for the "cheaper" instrument because the difference to "normal" instruments is greater be. The cheaper instrument is also said to have a similar sound to "vintage" instruments.
The earliest instruments in circulation can be recognized by the fact that not all springs are coil springs, but rather needle springs were still used in some cases.
Individual special series were produced in numbers of 100 each and sold at significantly higher prices due to higher production costs. The material purchase prices for engineering plastics are heavily dependent on the quantity purchased, and are very high, especially in small quantities. Examples of special series are the “The Nude” version with a transparent body and “The Piano” with a completely white flap on a black body.
criticism
The first series was criticized on two points. First of all, the mechanics were not yet fully developed. The spring pressure and the valve opening were not uniform and overall the feeling of gripping was relatively undefined because the upholstery and the valve mechanism are not as stiff as conventional valves. This point has been continuously improved through numerous minor modifications up to the current state (i.e. already during the first series).
The second point of criticism was the incorrect intonation, for which the cause of a saxophone is not always easy to find. It turned out that the tool for the knee was slightly flawed, which was invisible to the naked eye. The new construction of this tool ended the A1 / A1S series and established the A1SII series.
The A1SII series was also produced, albeit exclusively from polycarbonate / Makrolon. Strangely enough, this series has not yet reached the market because it has been overtaken by the A1SIII series.
The reason for the new model change was the identification of a new body material. The new material is not specified, but is softer than polycarbonate and, unlike before, does not come from Covestro / Bayer. The difference is less noticeable in the sound than in the feel; the intonation is more certain in all pitches, the dynamics are greater, the tone formation is easier. The A1SIII series has been on the market since summer 2015. According to Vibrato, the A1SII series will be sold as a special series in the near future.
Sound and feel
The sound of the vibrato saxophone is essentially indistinguishable from the sound of conventional saxophones. This is also to be expected theoretically, since unlike z. B. in stringed instruments the body is not involved in the primary sound formation through natural oscillation, but only determines the shape (and thus the sound) of the vibrating column of air. However, the saxophone body itself is indirectly stimulated to (essentially unwanted) vibrations by the air column, but these are barely perceptible acoustically or only close to the instrument (e.g. by the player himself), comparable to the phenomenon of one's own Perceiving the voice “in the head” differently than when hearing it from a recording.
For the person who plays, however, the feeling of playing is more immediate than the actual sound and subjectively can hardly be differentiated from the sound of the instrument. Here the mechanical vibration properties of the instrument have an effect, which in particular more or less hinder the oscillation of the individual tones and are therefore only perceived differently as "response" and "tone stability" by the experienced player. As a result, the body material, material thickness, the mass of the mechanism and the way it is connected to the body all affect whether you feel comfortable on the instrument, and this will also affect the sound that is produced.
Due to the low rigidity and high damping of plastic compared to conventional brass and bronze alloys, as well as the greater wall thickness of the vibrato, the vibrato body itself does not vibrate as much. As a result of these relationships, the vibrato sounds somewhat less “brilliant” to the player himself, depending on the space available; however, the listener cannot determine any differences, as numerous tests show. As noted above, the A1SIII is much more pleasant to play than its predecessor, at least for the author, and even more pleasant than many high-priced conventional saxophones.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patent US7608768 : Injection molded saxophone. Filed February 28, 2008 , published October 27, 2009 , inventor: Piyapat Thanyakij.
- ^ Wally Horwood: The Grafton Story (Eng.). Retrieved January 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Michael Segell: The Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, October 15, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4299-3087-1 , p. 193.
- ^ Nicholas Gebhardt: Going for Jazz: Musical Practices and American Ideology . University of Chicago Press, July 15, 2001, ISBN 978-0-226-28467-5 , pp. 158, 159.
- ↑ a b Stephen Howard (expert for woodwind instruments): "Workbench meeting" of Grafton (English). Retrieved January 16, 2016 .
- ↑ http://forum.saxontheweb.net/archive/index.php/t-27717.html
- ↑ YouTube video "GoPro: Surf Saxophone". May 31, 2014, accessed January 16, 2016 . Saxophonist Reggie Palida plays a vibrato sax A1S while surfing.