C melody sax

[ken k]

so what does anyone know about these? i was thinking of getting one just for kicks. I saw some Bueshcers on ebay that were reasonably priced. They were not as expensive as the Conns or Martins. I am not a sax player by trade although I know how to play it and I thought it would be fun to have and to perhaps play in church occasionally. Do C melodys use a specific mouthpiece or can you use a tenor or alto mouthpiece? One i saw on ebay did not come with a mouthpeice. I did notice some auctions for vintage C melody mouthpeices, but i did not know if you really needed one of those or if you could at least get by with a modern tenor or alto mouthpiece.
any info would be greatly appreciated. i know this is a tuba site but I just thought I would throw it out there and see what comes up. I thought perhaps any of you repair guys might know a little about them.

k

[ken k]

thanks for the links to the mouthpieces bloke, although those cost more than I tend to spend on the sax itself!!!! I also agree with elephant that it would be a good idea to have a sax that plays in C. Like I said I just want to get one for kix and giggles.

also if you need a specific mouthpiece what about the reeds? I think I would tend to try to make a tenor mouthpiece work, although perhaps that is one of the elements leading to the lousy intonation of the instruments?

[Conn 2J CC]

I like the 1915 frosted silver Conn C Melody Sax we own, which I overhauled myself. It came with an original mouthpiece. Our problem was finding reeds for it, so we finally settled on using Alto Sax reeds. The scale of the horn was a little funky, but I adjusted that by gluing cork into the leading half of several of the tone holes to bring their pitch down. The horn's tone reminds me of a teenage Tenor Sax that's still going through puberty - it's just not quite fully mature yet. Even so, if you get a well adjusted C Melody, they can be fun novelty horns, and easily used in church. Good luck with your search (and no, ours isn't for sale - keep looking ).

[Donn]

I think I would tend to try to make a tenor mouthpiece work, although perhaps that is one of the elements leading to the lousy intonation of the instruments?

Yes.

The internal dimensions of the saxophone mouthpiece are tied to the length etc. of the saxophone, such that it will play much more in tune with some mouthpieces than with others. Even when those mouthpieces are made for the right voice - that is, not every tenor mouthpiece will work well with every tenor - but the odds are sure much better. That Runyon mouthpiece looks like a good deal, I like Runyons. This one looks like the `Custom' from the outside, and if that's the basic design, it will be classic enough to suit an old saxophone like that but fairly flexible. (The ligatures are not so great, though.) You can use oversized reeds on a sax mouthpiece, or trim them if you like.

[Conn 2J CC]

Bloke - Thanks for info you've given above. I carefully set the heights of the pads on our C Melody for a pleasant, even tone throughout the entire register and (of course) to make sure all fingering combinations would work, checking both octaves as I went. Once I finishing that process, the C thru A notes at the top of the horn were flat. After serious consideration, I determined the best solution was to push the mouthpiece in far enough for those notes to be in tune and add cork to the tone holes of notes farther down the horn that became sharp with the mouthpiece shoved in that far. In the case of this horn, adding cork to some of the tone holes worked. The overall scale of this C Melody Sax is pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

I'll check into the Partner C Melody reeds you gave a link for. My concern will be if they truly are C Melody reeds. One box of C Melody reeds we ordered from another manufacturer were really nothing more than Alto Sax reeds.

[Dan Schultz]

When my wife and I got back into playing about 20 years ago... she got out her old Conn C-melody that was originally purchased by her mother in 1923. My wife actually played this horn in high school in the 60's and was basically banished to playing either oboe or flute music. Shortly after we formed the community band here in about 13 years ago she switched to a REAL alto sax. She now plays a Buffet Super-Dynaction and hasn't picked the C-sax up for a long time.

The C-sax is pitched slightly low and difficult to manage. I would imagine it would be OK for church music since most church pianos are flat, anyway!

Like someone else pointed out.... these horns fell by the wayside fairly early in the 'saxophone evolution' and never really were perfected and adjusted for modern pitch.

[iiipopes]

bloke's comments remind me of an old bad joke:
Q - "Do you know how many C melody saxophone players you can fit into a telephone booth?"
A - "All of them."

C melody sax playing oboe music: I know a guy who used to play with "The Largest Boy Scout Band in America," which was based where I live for decades a long, long time ago. He also was given the oboe parts to play, sounding an octave down.

[iiipopes]

Here you go:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... SS:US:1123" target="_blank

[ken k]

Here you go:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... SS:US:1123" target="_blank" target="_blank

a little out of my price range...

good luck selling that..


k