Pete Thomas Tenor Shootout II

[Bill Bryant]

Pete Thomas has redone his tenor shootout page, and he hasn't told us yet which horn is which.

I hope Pete will chime in at some point and tell us what the lineup is. Meanwhile, post your guesses.

http://www.petethomas.co.uk/saxophone-comparisons.html

[HUTMO]

Horns 3 and 5 work for me.

My choices...
3
5
4

1 and 2 no particular order.

I am guessing that 3 and 5 are the Conn or the Martin. 4 is the Selmer and who knows from there.

[CraigH]

Very interesting! I haven't played enough vintage horns to venture a guess as to which horn goes with which sound file. I just have 2 comments. First, Pete plays beautifully on all of the horns and shows that it is more about the player than it is about the equipment. Second, I like #3 the least.

I wonder when Pete will reveal? Can't wait!

[xax]

My guesses in the order of my preferences:
4 Conn
3 Mk VI
5 Martin
2 Yani
1 Walstein

[Tim Wolfe]

As others have said, Pete sounds great on all five horns.

I won't hazard a guess as to which sound clip goes with which horn, except that the horn in clip number 4 had the dodgiest intonation--so I guess it is either the Walstein or the Conn.

[Bill Bryant]

Pete?

[hgiles]

I tended to like 1 and 5 best. 3 and 2 the least -- as far as sound goes. 4 had some moments.

[pc1234]

4 and 5 sounded the most muscular to me and were my favorite. Maybe I preferred 5 just a little more than 4, but it's close. I'm going to guess that these were either the Conn, Martin or Walstein.

3 sounded the whiniest. I hope it's the Mark VI.

[milandro]

Well, I didn't like very much the sound of horn 1, 2 & 5 whatever they were, while I did like 3 and 4, the disliked horns were all a little bit too bright for me. Horn number 3 was very much softer in volume in the first piece and 4 was louder but they both had a richness of tone throughout the experiment

[RootyTootoot]

3 sounded the whiniest. I hope it's the Mark VI.

Exactly.

Mind you, knowing my luck/perceptiveness it'll probably be the Conn.

That was the only one where i had feeling of "not over keen on that".

[andrewc]

My guesses:

1. Conn - Lush, dark
2. Walstein - Didn't really like this one, kind of dull
3. Yanagisawa - Definitely the brightest, most "modern"-sounding
4. Mark VI - Rich and full, my favorite out of the 5
5. Martin - Dark, powerful, I liked this one too

Probably way off lol

[milandro]

one thing is for sure we surely heard different things, all of us! What a variation of judgement !

[CosmicGrooves]

Wow... really hard call. Overall, I think #4 sounds most like my King Zephyr which I like very much... but I think #4 got shafted in the Harlem Nocturne clip.
Hopefully I didn't pick the Chinese one. :P

#5 was similar in some ways, but there was something weird about it that made me not like it.

#1 and 2 sounds really smooth when hitting the low notes.

[pc1234]

Bumping this...

[CraigH]

I wonder when Pete will clue us in?????????????

[JL]

Once again this just proves to me that in terms of the recorded sound, it's the player not the horn. Pete sounds great on all of them and I can find only very subtle differences. In terms of how each horn plays and feels to the player, I'm sure there are greater differences.

I'll put down my first impressions list, even though I started shifting them around after listening a couple of times:

1. Martin
2. Walstein
3. Yani
4. VI
5. Conn

I'm sure I got them wrong, though. Very hard to sort out.

[HUTMO]

Pete!!!!!!

I have been checking back... when will you post the saxes?

HUTMO

[hgiles]

Pete's not being a 'nice creature'...

[DesertCreature]

I liked all of them. Am curious to find out which is the Walstein. I'm ordering a Walstein bari next month, and now I'm considering the tenor as well.

[foost]

Hi everyone. This is my first post, and this is really amazing fun..Pete sounds great!!!
My guesses are...
1) Conn
2) Martin
I changed my mind on these a few time...1) Conn 2) Martin....or is it !) Martin 2) Conn? Finally settled on Conn, Martin. They both had a bigger, fuller sound to me. I thought #1 was a bit smoother on "Body and Soul" which made me think Martin, bot,that gorgeous low end Bb and Eb made think Conn.( or could it be The Martin?...Who knows?...only Pete...hahaha). Both these horns had a really nice low end fullness to them.
3) Yani...a smaller sound
4) Selmer...has that Selmer punch, ring, resonace - zing to it
5) Walstein...buzziest sound and pitch problems
Anyways that's what I think they are. My favorites are #1) Conn and #4) Selmer.
When I find out what they really are I'll be so ashamed I'll have to hide and cry. (I have a Selmer and a Conn). Anyways...much good fun, and thanks very much Pete, couln't have done it without you.....//all the best, Al