Saxello set up by Tenor Madness

[kledbet]

I have been playing my Rampone Cazzani silver saxello for several days now. And the more I play it the more I like it. It plays warm and sweet and is hands down the most in tune soprano I have played. It does not have that modern Kenny G kind of sound but rather is big full and mellow. It does project when you push it, but it is never nasty.I hope all of you who want to buy one of these will get it from Randy Jones at Tenor Madness. You have no idea how good you sax will play until Randy has worked on it. Honestly, I found him about 3 years ago and I could not be more happy with his knowledge of horns or his amazing ability to get the best out of each horn. Check him out, and get one of these Rampone Cazzani horns if you want a vintage kind of sound.

[Randall]

During my "sax shop tour" of Europe last summer I had the opportunity to play one of these fine horns at Saxes.co.uk....
They are exactly as you described---I was very very tempted!
Fantastic horns.

[bkiser]

I have to agree with this statement, though my horn is an alto. I do not believe in sax tech magic, or voodoo, etc., but I guess that Randy just takes great care with the horns. Since I bought my R1 Jazz alto about a year ago, I had good days and bad days with it. I loved the tone and I loved the projection, but the intonation and response were terrible many days. The horn was very inconsistent and just too much work to be fun to play. My horn had physical problems which Randy was able to identify and resolve, and now instead of being frustrated and fighting with the horn to extract its good qualities, its now a pleasure to play. I am sure that there are many other really good repair techs out there, but I can say that in 22 years of playing, a really good tech has never worked on any of my horns until now.

Back to the saxello- does it feel overly resistant or stuffy? Ive seen those complaints, but suspect that it is probably just related to the setup.

[xuanvu]

I wonder if you send the horn to him, got the horn to be on top of it and then he send the horn back to you, would the shipping/handling gonna mess it up again???

Kenny.

[bkiser]

I think that is always a possibility, but probably pretty remote. Mine showed up in tip-top shape. It was packed really solidly and took about 15 minutes to get unpacked.

[xuanvu]

I see... I've just went to his website, $400 for a custom setup, that's lots of money there :)

Kenny.

[bkiser]

You arent kidding! I suspect my R&C was worse than most- bent body tube, messed up tone hole chimneys, neck receiver problems,etc. I have had the horn up for sale thinking that the problem was the player, but I would have felt like crap had someone bought the horn from me, and THEN the issues had been discovered. I was just to the point of being tired of having a new horn that I didn't like playing and was determined to figure out what was wrong.

I am hoping to A/B the horn against some pretty stiff competition in the next week or so along with some other players. Previously, it was assessed as having a great tone, but not making the grade in response and intonation by my little local sax circle.

The benefit of Tenor Madness is that all the R&C horns they retail include the setup!

[kledbet]

Back to the saxello- does it feel overly resistant or stuffy? Ive seen those complaints, but suspect that it is probably just related to the setup.[/QUOTE]

Mine is not at all, it kind of blows like a vintage Conn. I don't have to fight the intonation at all. The high register is very good and the altisimo is good for me up to double "C". The volume on the palm keys is good but will probably respond faster if you back off the air just a little and don't push it to hard. All in all I find it a great sax with its own sound, and not just another sax trying to sound, or play, like a Mark VI

[kledbet]

I wonder if you send the horn to him, got the horn to be on top of it and then he send the horn back to you, would the shipping/handling gonna mess it up again???

Kenny.


No Randy packs great and won't let the sax move inside the case. He totally stands by all his work... In my opinion he is at the top of the sax repair game. You owe it to yourself to let him work on your sax.

[kledbet]

I see... I've just went to his website, $400 for a custom setup, that's lots of money there :)

Kenny.


I think his standard setup fee is $250 for a standard horn and the $400 is for the Reference line. If you are really happy with your horn then maybe it would not be what you need. All I can say is that Randy has now been through all my saxes (5) my flute which he did an amazing job on, and my prestige buffet clarinets. In many cases the horns just opened up and played the way I always dreamed they would. I think its just the fact that Randy's passion is horns and he spends more time thinking about them, and hours setting them up and testing them until they are perfect. He is just the best... give him a shot at some point in the future.

[xuanvu]

Thanks kledbet and bkiser for the clearification... Probably the next time that my horn need adjustment, I'll give Tenor madness a shot...

Kenny.

[irimi]

Xuanvu,

Let me second (or third) the comments made by Brian (bkiser) and kletbet.

I live relatively near TM and have spent some time there, visiting with, and observing Randy at work.

My take is that he will not let a horn leave the shop unless it is in as absolutely perfect shape as is possible.

Not to be glib, but the old saw about "you get what you pay for" really applies.

I played Brian's alto before Randy worked on it and it was a great horn wasted. Given Brian's comments, Randy certainly changed that.

It looks like you have some great horns. If you think that they are not realizing their potential, give Randy a call.

I bought a '28 or '29 Martin sop from Randy and, apart from the great sound, the action, intonation and overall playability was better than any horn I had ever played.

[xuanvu]

I've been contacting with Randy lately and probably gonna send one of my horns for him to see his work.

Thanks all,
Kenny.

[bkiser]

I A/B'd my R&C alto versus a couple of very nice altos this past Thursday. Previously, when compared to these same exact horns, my R&C had a much broader tone, but was greatly lacking in response. It was this comparison that initially put me on the path to finding out what was wrong with the R&C. I compared it with a low 5-digit Buffet SDA, a YAS-61, a french Noblet, and a very low serial Selmer S80-I (which was my horn for 20 years, but now belongs to a good friend). The Selmer still has the best keywork to my hands- its setup very low and very light, but some play was evident. There was almost no difference at all between the S80 and my R1J as far as resistance goes, which is a huge improvement to the R&C. Soundwise, the R&C just has no competition. Sitting about 20 feet away from my friend playing, the R&C had a much fatter sound, but more similar than I expected. The S80 just sounded very weak after hearing the R1J.

[selmerfan]

bkiser, try one of the Reference 54 's that Randy has set-up with a neck he has also worked on. I think they have the best sound (not to mention pretty good ergos) going right now, but I know that's also a personal thing.
selmerfan

[Jbroad572]

Check him out, and get one of these Rampone Cazzani horns if you want a vintage kind of sound.
What exactly qualifies a soprano to be a vintage sounding sop? What kind of sound is this? Would you not be able to make it more contemporary, smooth jazzish when wanted? I'm considering one of the straight sop's and very curious.
I really wanted to get a silver one, but after hearing it's not lacquered I think I will pass. Not too much of a fan of polishing and all.

[Stan]

What exactly qualifies a soprano to be a vintage sounding sop? What kind of sound is this? Would you not be able to make it more contemporary, smooth jazzish when wanted? I'm considering one of the straight sop's and very curious.
I really wanted to get a silver one, but after hearing it's not lacquered I think I will pass. Not too much of a fan of polishing and all.

Silver plating is one of the most durable finitures on saxophones. It will give its character to the sound and "Sound" is everything for a saxophone player. I tried about three weeks ago a 24KT gold plated half-curved soprano and also a silver plated curved soprano. Both played great, the curved has a fatter sound IMHO but the half curved is sweeter. If you want to have a first idea about it please have a look to my "virtual tour" in the R&C factory

http://www.hobbysax.com/R&C.html

and select the button "strumenti". I placed there a short QuickTime movie. Unfortunately I had few minutes to test the instruments and also I am not a professional player.
The virtual tour is only in Italian but it will be translated soon.

Stan

[selmerfan]

I can make this post from quite a bit of experience...
For those of you wondering if shipping a horn to Randy Jones at Tenor Madness and having it shipped back again is a concern, don't let it be. I "found" Randy through a sax teacher when I lived in SD, and I shipped my horn (Mark VI) to him for many years before I moved to Iowa, about 50 minutes from his house. My horns ALWAYS came back in fantastic playing condition, his verbatim description of when a horn is packed well, and he'll tell you this on the phone if you ask him for instructions on how to do it, is, "when you feel comfortable tossing it across the room in the packagin it's in, then it's packaged right, and not before!" Very true, it take a loooonnnnggg time to unpack one of the horns Randy has packaged up. If you're in the market for a new, used, or vintage top end horn, he is the man to talk to, and don't go strictly by what he has pictured on his website (www.tenormadness.com). He has a couple rooms full of vintage and new horns, with different ones coming in daily. If you're looking for a specific brand of vintage or new horn with a price range, let him know, if he doesn't have it, he can usually track one down. I can't say enough about this true craftsman and artist. Oh yeah, he does great flute and clarinet work also!
selmerfan

[bkiser]

I agree...unpacking the horn as it came from Randy took a LONG time. It was secured extremely well and came out playing perfectly! I think the misconception about R&C saxes is that because they are produced in smaller quantities, that they get the attention on the production line that will ensure greater playability from the factory. This was not my experience. Once Randy set the horn up, it plays incredibly well....

[-88-]

My R&C tenor came from SaxForte and arrived is excellent playing condition. Love this horn. Like Randy, SaxForte's packing is well heavy weight and extremely well done. Thanks for people like Randy and Mathew Aaron at Saxforte we have people who know what they're doing and care.