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The Problem with Used Woodwind Instruments

Posted by Charles Fail on

The Problem with Used Woodwind Instruments

Woodwinds are somewhat complex instruments, consisting of many keys that cover tone holes with pads, regulate key heights with cork and felt, and activating all of this with steel springs. Clarinets, flutes, piccolos and flutes use pads made of felt covered with fish skin while Saxophone and bassoon pads are made of felt covered with thin leather. One important characteristic of all woodwind instruments is moisture, and this dramatically limits the life expectancy of pads. The used market is filled with cheap woodwind instruments of various quality and in various mechanical condition. As professional technicians, we have often hear parents...

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Conn Chu Berry Reflections

Posted by Charles Fail on

Conn Chu Berry Reflections

Today, I reached to retrieve my neck strap to test a Conn Chu Berry Alto and something suddenly occurred to me. I was getting ready to play a soon-to be 100-year-old Saxophone – not as an antique but as a competitive musical instrument! How many other things are there with no built-in obsolescence? Engineers can tell me with some accuracy when things like my car or appliances will die. These all have a finite life span but not musical instruments! In the case of woodwind instruments, if you keep them in reasonable repair, keep putting in necessary pads, corks and...

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Why Golden Era?

Posted by Charles Fail on

Why Golden Era?

We started Golden Era, LLC because one day, I looked around and saw two gaps in this marketplace. The first gap concerned student musicians. Yes, there are many places kids and their parents can purchase band instruments. As traditional music stores continue to close across the nation, more and more are buying these online and as so much of instrument making has been offshored to places like China, old technicians like me realize that the quality of these instruments simply doesn’t measure up to the quality of instruments manufactured in this country in the past. I saw an opportunity to...

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What Happened to U.S. Saxophones (Among Other Instruments)

Posted by Charles Fail on

What Happened to U.S. Saxophones (Among Other Instruments)

What Happened to U.S. Made Saxophones? (A Personal Perspective)The Internet is an interesting place. Everyone with a computer mouse and a keyboard seems to be reading someone’s posting and then repeating it as gospel. Occasionally, us “old timers” jokingly comment on this modern play on the old “telephone game.” A few of us were “there” in the “good old days” and worked in the U.S. music industry when it made these now-legendary instruments and we personally knew many of the “players” or we worked with those that had first-hand experience. For example, I knew Vito Pascucci who gave me some...

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Boarding House Food or Fast Food?

Posted by Charles Fail on

Boarding House Food or Fast Food?

Boarding House Food or Fast Food?This is an apt comparison I personally make between modern Saxophones and older vintage instruments. While there are some great modern Saxophones that certainly play more “in tune” and feel better than their earlier counterparts, my preference is for older horns and I can sum up my reasons in two words – flexibility and tone. I believe these two factors become more important the longer one pursues the Sax. Older instruments tend to have larger bores than their modern counterparts with wider intervals. For the inexperienced player, this makes the older instrument harder to “play...

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