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In the middle of the 2000s, I decided to get several rare Dave Guardala tenors. Their production has already stopped, and Dave himself seems to be still in prison... The total quantity of saxophones produced by B&S it is seemed to me was no more than 16-17 thousand. All saxophones made by B&S (original B&S, Dave Guardala, LA Sax "Chicago Jazz Series", Allora, Antoine Courtois, F.Shmidt, Ernie Northway, Musica) have a common numbering. And so we can assume that Dave Guardala horns was made possibly from 1000 to 3000 horns only. Those we can say that it's rare collector item. Reviews about these saxophones were good. And it was not surprising. After all, the designer of cult expensive mouthpieces cannot organize the production of not good saxophones ...
I bought two tenors on Ebay and received two tenors in exchange/trade from my exbuyer, also a SOTW member, a good man from California. Hope all is well with Chuck!
So I had silver plated, gold lacquered and black nickel Dave Guardala (all were Artist series, DG500) and LA Sax “Chicago Jazz Series” gold lacquered. Also wanted to buy Allora model. But the sellers refused to send the package abroad from the United States.
LA Sax “Chicago Jazz Series” is not Dave Guardala. But since I received them almost at the same time, I also speak about it. All saxophones were made in Germany (B&S).
So. All saxophones had a different sound. The black tenor had the worst sound. And I hated it. I bought this tenor for $2500 on Ebay (normal Ebay cost almost 20 years ago) and was very happy with the purchase. But was very disappointed when it arrived. It was an empty, hard and uninteresting sound. On the forum I read opinions about DG black nickel gold brass saxophones. And the man was allegedly pleased with the sound (except he wrote problems in lower register). But my tenor was not gold brass and it sounded terrible. Silver plated tenor had a more interesting sound. But also not great. On the other hand, the lacquered Guardala tenor (received by exchange) had a very good sound. LA Sax "Chicago Jazz Series" lacquered had the most beautiful appearance and more advanced mechanics. But the lacquered Guardala sounded better than the lacquered CJS.
That is, the saxophones were allegedly the same and had the same pads with metal resonators, but they sounded completely different. I started looking for answers to my questions on the forums, but did not find any useful information. And I decided to start by removing the black nickel finish. It was not an easy task. Strange finish – looks like a mixture of black paint, lacquer and small fraction of nickel. It is very easily damaged and scratched (I saw a lot of shabby saxophones). But it's hard to remove when you want to do it.
So I removed black nickel. And the sound without this finish has become much better. Then I removed metal resonators on the original pads. I don't like metal (on the other hand, the lacquered Guardala with metal resonators sounded very good...). And installed rivets instead metal. The sound became definitely better. But now I put plastic resonators instead rivets on the bottom 4 keys and I think I'll put plastic everywhere.
Silver plated tenor. I also put plastic resos instead metal. The sound improved and was almost identical to my vintage Martin Magna tenor. And this was very strange (because Martin was made 30 years earlier in a different country and from a different metal). Now I decided to experiment a little and put very small plastic resonators (almost rivets) instead of the normal resos on the bottom 4 keys. And the sound seems to be a little better.
I know there are a lot of people who think that resonators and finish don't affect the sound in any way. But there is also the opposite opinion, and this is normal.
It is interesting to hear the opinion of other members of the forum about the sound of their tenors (musical instruments are items that sometimes defy the known laws of physics a little, and therefore it can be assumed that the sound of Guardala altos with different types of finish or pads will not be so different). On the photo my tenor bare brass (without original BN finish).
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I bought two tenors on Ebay and received two tenors in exchange/trade from my exbuyer, also a SOTW member, a good man from California. Hope all is well with Chuck!
So I had silver plated, gold lacquered and black nickel Dave Guardala (all were Artist series, DG500) and LA Sax “Chicago Jazz Series” gold lacquered. Also wanted to buy Allora model. But the sellers refused to send the package abroad from the United States.
LA Sax “Chicago Jazz Series” is not Dave Guardala. But since I received them almost at the same time, I also speak about it. All saxophones were made in Germany (B&S).
So. All saxophones had a different sound. The black tenor had the worst sound. And I hated it. I bought this tenor for $2500 on Ebay (normal Ebay cost almost 20 years ago) and was very happy with the purchase. But was very disappointed when it arrived. It was an empty, hard and uninteresting sound. On the forum I read opinions about DG black nickel gold brass saxophones. And the man was allegedly pleased with the sound (except he wrote problems in lower register). But my tenor was not gold brass and it sounded terrible. Silver plated tenor had a more interesting sound. But also not great. On the other hand, the lacquered Guardala tenor (received by exchange) had a very good sound. LA Sax "Chicago Jazz Series" lacquered had the most beautiful appearance and more advanced mechanics. But the lacquered Guardala sounded better than the lacquered CJS.
That is, the saxophones were allegedly the same and had the same pads with metal resonators, but they sounded completely different. I started looking for answers to my questions on the forums, but did not find any useful information. And I decided to start by removing the black nickel finish. It was not an easy task. Strange finish – looks like a mixture of black paint, lacquer and small fraction of nickel. It is very easily damaged and scratched (I saw a lot of shabby saxophones). But it's hard to remove when you want to do it.
So I removed black nickel. And the sound without this finish has become much better. Then I removed metal resonators on the original pads. I don't like metal (on the other hand, the lacquered Guardala with metal resonators sounded very good...). And installed rivets instead metal. The sound became definitely better. But now I put plastic resonators instead rivets on the bottom 4 keys and I think I'll put plastic everywhere.
Silver plated tenor. I also put plastic resos instead metal. The sound improved and was almost identical to my vintage Martin Magna tenor. And this was very strange (because Martin was made 30 years earlier in a different country and from a different metal). Now I decided to experiment a little and put very small plastic resonators (almost rivets) instead of the normal resos on the bottom 4 keys. And the sound seems to be a little better.
I know there are a lot of people who think that resonators and finish don't affect the sound in any way. But there is also the opposite opinion, and this is normal.
It is interesting to hear the opinion of other members of the forum about the sound of their tenors (musical instruments are items that sometimes defy the known laws of physics a little, and therefore it can be assumed that the sound of Guardala altos with different types of finish or pads will not be so different). On the photo my tenor bare brass (without original BN finish).
