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Today, I went to Sam Ash and tried out a couple altos. Since I left my gear at home, I had to use a store mouthpiece, lig, and reed
. The setup was a vandoren al3, a rico #3 reed, and a rovner dark lig. First off, I played a late 24xxxx something tru-tone. To my surprise, it was stuffy, more out of tune than my yas-275, and had none of that characteristic buescher sound everyone talks about. Next was a 33xxxx (i think) something buescher 140. It was slightly less stuffy, slightly less out of tune (but still very), and I couldn't hear the straight, clean, buescher sound (very fuzzy). Next, the clerk went back and pulled out a Selmer SBA. It was still stuffy, slightly out of tune, but I could hear that french selmer sound pushing through through the stuffiness. I told him this, and he said that I would love a Cannonball (which I have a slight bias against). He pulled out a black nickel (I forget what model) alto. It was loud, and spoke easily, but was still out of tune. He then told me that he (coincidentally) happened to play for Cannonball :shock: . I thanked him, and I left. My question is, why were the bueschers stuffy and out of tune? The stuffiness might be explained by the reed and the fact that the lig wasnt stretched out, but the cannonball wasn't stuffy (and even the selmer was :shock: ). Also, I don't know the explanation for the out of tune-ness. It may have been the mouthpiece, but I personally play an al3, so it may have just been a bad one. Next time I go back, I'll play it with my setup, which isn't much different (al3, java 2 1/2, rovner light. btw i know the javas don't really work, but they give a nice bright sound; I plan on switching in a couple months) My setup has a nice, light, french sound on my 275, so it might work on the bueschers.
Anyways, sorry about the long post but thanks in advance for your answers.
Anyways, sorry about the long post but thanks in advance for your answers.