On 2003-01-24 00:29, fatveg wrote:
Hi, has anyone played with the Maui Xaphoon Pocket Sax they sell at Lark In A.M.? It looks fun and cheap, and I aspire to be fun and cheap. I don’t play the sax, but I’m tempted to get one of these to play (I’m looking for something cheap, simple and chromatic to play around with, and yes I do have recorders). See it at > http://www.larkinam.com/MenComNet/Business/Retail/LarkNet/Winds
Thanks! Fatveg.
You had to post it didn’t you!
I followed the link, listened to some clips, read the script.
The next thing I know is I’ve ordered one!
If this starts another version of WHOA, there’ll be trouble.
I’m tellin’ ya!
Not content with tales of beautiful whistles, we now read about other blowing sticks and things.
I’ve been clean of WHOA now for 4 days, and you’ve made me relapse!Stop it! Now!
The Xaphoon is a lot of fun, and has an amazingly nice sound. I have not been able to get a good second octave out of it however. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
On 2003-01-24 00:29, fatveg wrote:
Hi, has anyone played with the Maui Xaphoon Pocket Sax they sell at Lark In A.M.? It looks fun and cheap, and I aspire to be fun and cheap. I don’t play the sax, but I’m tempted to get one of these to play (I’m looking for something cheap, simple and chromatic to play around with, and yes I do have recorders). See it at > http://www.larkinam.com/MenComNet/Business/Retail/LarkNet/Winds
Thanks! Fatveg.
You had to post it didn’t you!
I followed the link, listened to some clips, read the script.
The next thing I know is I’ve ordered one!
If this starts another version of WHOA, there’ll be trouble.
I’m tellin’ ya!
Not content with tales of beautiful whistles, we now read about other blowing sticks and things.
I’ve been clean of WHOA now for 4 days, and you’ve made me relapse!Stop it! Now!
I saw a guy checking one out in a local music shop.The salesman had a brief blast at it-it sounded very reedy/buzzy, like a chalameau(ancestor of the Clarinet),which I suppose is what it really is.The guy said he was looking to buy one for his teenage daughter who played recorder-he didn’t seem too impressed when he heard it! I suggested a nice low whistle- the shop stocked Kerry,Susato and Shaw low D’s ,all for around the same price as the Xaphoon.I’m sure that a passable home made Xaphoon could easily be made-cheap clarinet mouthpieces are available.
On 2003-01-24 07:05, brewerpaul wrote:
The Xaphoon is a lot of fun, and has an amazingly nice sound. I have not been able to get a good second octave out of it however. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
(edited because I found some answers on the site of the German importer to Europe).
It also has the fingering charts
On 2003-01-24 20:42, spittin_in_the_wind wrote:
Run for the Hills! I listened to the sound clip, and it sounds hideous! >
Actually, I thought it sounded rather good…much better than I expected. Which tune did you listen to? And was this on the Xaphoon site or on Lark in the a.m.'s site?
You know, it occurred to me that we’d better keep the fiddlers out of here, or before you know it, C&F will be nothing but sax and violins!
Redwolf
[ This Message was edited by: Redwolf on 2003-01-25 02:17 ]
That’s much better…I was having visions of dozens of squalling C&F’ers tooting these things, a la Lark in the Morning’s clip–it sounded like a strangling monkey.
Very cool instrument. The fingering would surely throw me off.
Has anyone here tried a clarinet or saxophone reed (with mouthpiece) on a low whistle (or homemade metal or PVC tube) ??
I liked what I heard of that. But I didn’t hear much in the way of reed manipulation which you’d need for glissing and bending notes. Now if you wanted to use this for blues or klezmer, the ability to manipulate the reed would be crucial.
ok Tony, you’ve got your wish. I’ve just done some experimenting with my sax mouthpcs and reeds.
Feadog brass D barrel - I tried 2 metal sop sax mouthpcs (Otto link and Dukoff). All I got were high squeaks and squawks. The mouthpcs were a bit loose on the barrel, so I put some tape on the latter.
Gen nickel Bb barrel - I tried 2 alto sax mouthpcs (same brands/materials as above, also slightly loose). The Dukoff (designed for an edgy treble-y brash sound) just squeaked.
On the Otto Link (designed for a mellow sound) I managed, at times, to get a rich, low clarinet-y sound. But I could only get one octave of the scale(Do re mi…ti). No matter what I did (blow harder, try blowing overtones the sax way, etc) I could never get the 2nd octave. What I got were squeaky overtone notes even higher than the 2nd octave notes.
I’m guessing it’s a physics thing. From what I’ve seen of all these bamboo saxes and xafoons, they all seem to have the octave hole at the back of the barrel for the 2nd octave.
