Re: OT: bamboo tenor saxophone?

["Paolo Valladolid" <phv40@hotmail.com>]

>Paolo!
>I dont play saxophone, but I am fascinated by bamboo and once
>recorded such an instrument.
>Where did you get it? A series product?
>Is it "professional" in its use (perfectly tuned...)?

Hi Matthias,

I got my bamboo saxophone from Angel Sampedro Del Rio in Argentina:

http://usuarios.arnet.com.ar/bambu/Esaxos.htm

My tenor sax looks like almost like the one featured on Angel's website, 
except that it's tuned to Bb (like a brass-body tenor sax), has a gourd 
bell, and has by my request a wooden attachment to facilitate supporting 
the 
instrument on my right thumb when playing standing up.

I actually don't have much of a background playing saxophone either.  What 
happened was that after I picked up a Maui Xaphoon (a cheap bamboo 
clarinet-like instrument) and inquired about it on the oddmusic list, I 
was 
referred by folks there to Angel.  They basically said I should have 
gotten 
an instrument from Angel instead of the Xaphoon.  Having had a couple of 
days to play my new sax, I can attest to the superior quality of Angel's 
workmanship.

Angel tunes his saxes to equal temperament unless there is a special 
request.  Playing each note in tune is a matter of maintaining the right 
amount of lip pressure on the reed, but you have to do this on any 
saxophone.  You can also bend pitches by using fingers to vary the 
openings 
of holes.  Angel's saxes use recorder fingering (supposedly the easiest 
fingering scheme to learn in the world of wind instruments), with one more 
hole added so that the left hand covers five holes instead of four as on 
recorder.  The extra hole facilitates the playing of certain accidentals 
without resorting to cross-fingering.  Based on the fingering chart 
supplied 
by Angel (he kindly labeled it in the key of Bb), the entire chromatic 
scale 
is accessible across the pitch range of the instrument.  The fingering 
chart 
shows a 2-octave range, but I've found I can occasionally hit higher notes 
- 
I'm still getting the hang of changing the register of a note by adjusting 
how I "grip" the reed with my lips (i.e. embouchure).

Paolo

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