Lairmon
07-15-2008, 01:28 AM
I had been looking for specific info on the site (SOTW) about the new Jupiter alto and the internet but have not found any reviews...thus I think this review might be useful to some people. I believe some people call the new Jupiter Pro line the "XO" model. I checked one out today at a local music store and found it labeled 2069 model. Jupiter states that the horn is partially hand made, the bell and some other parts being "hand Hammered" I think. This one is early in the run of these horns as it was marked 365....no XXX if you know what I mean. In the U.S. I noticed there're marketing them to sell just under $2,000.00, the price at the store I test ran one was asking about $400 more bucks than that.
I have a MKVII alto I'm pretty happy with, I actually traded a pretty good MKVI for it(!) but curiosity gets to me and I like to see whats out there. The Jupiter had just been taken out of the plastic and so had not been setup by a tech. I noticed it was missing a screw on the part (clamp?ring?) that holds the bow to the body of the horn. That bodes ill....
The Jupiter visually looks pretty good, though the engraving is a little light. The layout is pretty comfortable, ergo wise, but it did feel strange once I started playing in terms of my left hand. The palm keys are rather prominent so my left hand fingers felt further down to reach the main keys. The Eb/C also felt a little odd, though not bad, the left cluster was nice. As I'm coming from the ergos of a MKVII you have to put some of that down to just a difference in familiarity. I have had my VII altered a bit to play more like a MKVI though. I had my tech build up the low Bb so its not a stretch, and move the Eb/C combo up a little for my right hand pinky.
My initial reaction to the tone was favorable. It wasn't to bright or thin sounding, but instead was rather neutral in terms of bright/dark. I was using a Morgan 6M and Alexander DC strength 3 for my mpc set up. I did my usual warm up consisting of long tones and some overtones to warm myself up and get more time to get used to the horn.
Despite the full warm up I noticed the horn was fairly resistant. In its current condition (not set up) it was a little hard to blow. The springs action was very heavy as well. Some may not have minded that but I tend to like my horns with med-light tension.
As I continued playing some technical stuff the tension of the springs was increasingly uncomfortable. The tension of the springs can be lightened up by a tech to suit the players likes.
More disconcerting though was the intonation of the horn. I had brought my tuner along so I could get a second opinion on its intonation tendencies. It had all the usual week spots of a saxophone. Low D was flat, second E was sharp and the upper range was generally sharp. The best altos I've encountered for intonation was a Yamaha Custom (855 model) then my other Yamahas I used to own, a 62 and a Custom Z. My Selmer MkVI was pretty good with my current VII being just a little more challenging. Other vintage horns I've had we're actually pretty good too...a Conn 6M and Buescher Aristocrat.
To give the store credit when I mentioned these things to the Manager he called up the stores Sax tech to do some work on it. They packed the Jupiter up before I had even left the store to get the work done. I'll go back and try it out in a while and see if the horn improves in the various areas discussed.
I hope this basic review is helpful.
I have a MKVII alto I'm pretty happy with, I actually traded a pretty good MKVI for it(!) but curiosity gets to me and I like to see whats out there. The Jupiter had just been taken out of the plastic and so had not been setup by a tech. I noticed it was missing a screw on the part (clamp?ring?) that holds the bow to the body of the horn. That bodes ill....
The Jupiter visually looks pretty good, though the engraving is a little light. The layout is pretty comfortable, ergo wise, but it did feel strange once I started playing in terms of my left hand. The palm keys are rather prominent so my left hand fingers felt further down to reach the main keys. The Eb/C also felt a little odd, though not bad, the left cluster was nice. As I'm coming from the ergos of a MKVII you have to put some of that down to just a difference in familiarity. I have had my VII altered a bit to play more like a MKVI though. I had my tech build up the low Bb so its not a stretch, and move the Eb/C combo up a little for my right hand pinky.
My initial reaction to the tone was favorable. It wasn't to bright or thin sounding, but instead was rather neutral in terms of bright/dark. I was using a Morgan 6M and Alexander DC strength 3 for my mpc set up. I did my usual warm up consisting of long tones and some overtones to warm myself up and get more time to get used to the horn.
Despite the full warm up I noticed the horn was fairly resistant. In its current condition (not set up) it was a little hard to blow. The springs action was very heavy as well. Some may not have minded that but I tend to like my horns with med-light tension.
As I continued playing some technical stuff the tension of the springs was increasingly uncomfortable. The tension of the springs can be lightened up by a tech to suit the players likes.
More disconcerting though was the intonation of the horn. I had brought my tuner along so I could get a second opinion on its intonation tendencies. It had all the usual week spots of a saxophone. Low D was flat, second E was sharp and the upper range was generally sharp. The best altos I've encountered for intonation was a Yamaha Custom (855 model) then my other Yamahas I used to own, a 62 and a Custom Z. My Selmer MkVI was pretty good with my current VII being just a little more challenging. Other vintage horns I've had we're actually pretty good too...a Conn 6M and Buescher Aristocrat.
To give the store credit when I mentioned these things to the Manager he called up the stores Sax tech to do some work on it. They packed the Jupiter up before I had even left the store to get the work done. I'll go back and try it out in a while and see if the horn improves in the various areas discussed.
I hope this basic review is helpful.