A Sale [Rose, tenor rec*] and its REASON!

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:01 am

I just used the first converter that came up when I typed in "currency converter" in google. I just tried it again with this one: http://www.xe.com/ucc/

German marks, right? I'm probably doing something wrong, Tony.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:08 am

Right.
$2,414.41 USD

I didn't see German Marks on Yahoo's converter and used a factor (obviously wrong) from another website.

At any price, it looks like a serious instrument.

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:23 am

Eh! The irish would laugh at that one... and they think a wooden whistle is too much already!

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:54 am

Use this convertor.

DM are obsolete, but the price I got was about $2200 US.

Stuart

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:55 am

Oh, sorry, didn't see page 2.

Stuart

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:55 am

I did not see prices either. Wald, where did you find that price?

Yahoo converter give a bit over $2400 US today.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/m5?a=3800&s=DEM&t=USD

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:59 am

Azalin wrote:Eh! The irish would laugh at that one... and they think a wooden whistle is too much already!

Wouldn't the very same people laugh at you if you turned up to a session with a cheap plastic flute or concertina? There's something weird going on here.

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:02 am

Oops, page two!

That is a very interesting observation, Wombat. I knew there was something about the high end thing that was bugging but just could not put my finger on it. I think that was it.

Wombat wrote:
Azalin wrote:Eh! The irish would laugh at that one... and they think a wooden whistle is too much already!
Wouldn't the very same people laugh at you if you turned up to a session with a cheap plastic flute or concertina? There's something weird going on here.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:27 am

Jessie,

I'm no sax player, but my impression is that sax actually uses fingerings very close to Boehm flute fingerings.

I know from music history that the sax key mechanism is derived from the key mechanism of the Boehm flute.

--James

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:42 am

C is different and the Eb key is normally closed. C is oxo ooo. The accidentals vary a bit, there is lots more touches on a sax. LT is octave only, etc.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:43 pm

I don't yet know about Boehm flute fingering; my first student model is in the mail as I write. What I can say is that saxophone fingering is a very natural extension of whistle fingering. Obviously you have to deal with accidentals but the appropriate keys are conveniently located for fluent fingering. But the basic fingering of most of a C major scale follows fairly closely the fingering of a D whistle, except taht F# on whistle sounds as F on saxophone. Right hand pinky deals with low C, B, Bb and Eb. Years of playing sax meant that I got whistle fingering immediately and knew exactly where I was straight away. The same would work in reverse.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:06 pm

Wow, Zub! That's really cool.

Quote from the Strathmann website:

Question:
Which is the sound of the Strathmann-Alto flute?

Answer:
The sound is between the German flute (Boehmflöte), the recorder and the pan-flute..

You've gotta post a sound clip once you get it up and running.

-Paul

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:22 am

Tony wrote:I didn't see any prices.

The price is just under 2,000 Euros, so yes it would be around 2,400+ dollars.

It's a lot of money, but certainly not overpriced considering the worksmanship. The wood has no ferrules. The tuning slide is wooden, but using three neoprene O rings instead of the traditional cork assembly.
All the hardware is nickel-silver, thick silver-plated. Some of the holes, notably the topmost octave vents are "chimney" metal inserts. The annular keys ("open" keys) go over wood chimneys laid overt the main tube.

The head is made of plastic, for mechanical reasons. The windway itself is lined with cedar (red cedar, I reckon) both in the head proper and the windway removable "lid" (attached by a sax ligature). There's also a wood lid supplied, matching the whistle's wood. Changing does alter the sound colour.

So does the adjustable windway (Strathmann's patent too--well, there are three of his used on this alto alone): with the set screw fully in, the sound is quite breathy, very trad whistle like. Turning the screw out reduces air demand, increases back pressure, gets a reedy sound at the extreme.

Finally, there's a very sensitive, chin-operated button, which opens a small vent inside the head, below the window. This allows to gradually raise the pitch, up to a quarter-tone. Do what you'll fancy with it:
blow "piano" while staying in tune,
bend "jazz" tones,
play chromatic notes (i.e. make the G# higher than the Bb)
etc.

Tony wrote:Zoob... ? also, is this instrument stocked or did you have to wait?

Mr Strathmann is a very nice person, and told me he always tries to keep two instruments in stock, one in rosewood and the other in afr. blackwood. I took rosewood and got it by mail a few days after I transfered the money. There was a nice hard case, velvet-lined, like those you usually see for Boehm flutes, with some joint grease and a clarinet-type swab (chamois piece with a weighted string).

Before buying, I had a long correspondence with a Danish jazzman called Hans Ulrik--see http://www.hansulrik.dk/

Jens (or any other in Denmark), did you ever hear him ?

He plays saxes (and bass clarinet) as well as two Strathmann flutes, the alto (F) and one soprano (C), which he has had for over ten years. He highly recommended the flutes, and I purchased a record from him ("Danish standards"), to hear the alto.

There's a short clip of him on the soprano you can hear from his site here http://www.hansulrik.dk/listen_under.html (Flash 6 plug-in needed).

Now, we're both working on getting Mr Strathmann to start working on a Tenor C or--why not?--bass in F.

cyberspiff · Post by **cyberspiff** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:37 am

Zub, any chance once you get it broken in you can do a recording so we can hear what it sounds like?

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:01 am

You can buy a darned excellent alto recorder for less than that. Recorder fingerings are NOT all that hard to learn, plus there are no moving parts to wear out or break. Interesting instrument, but I'll pass ( alathough I'd love to try it out if you're ever passing through upstate NY...)