Thanks for the vote of confidence, Milandro.
I don't have a lot of insight to offer on white lacquer or how the PRC factories are executing it -- I'm sure I (or any dealer ordering from PRC) could order one, but I can't speak on what I haven't tested for myself. I'm sure the result would be not too different from any other tenor from the same factory, but I do get different results from different necks -- I often end up recommending (and even requesting) that customers humor me and try a silverplated neck with the tenors and altos because the silverplated from the factory that makes my Crescent line have a different response, generally, from goldplated (quicker attack, less sustain -- has plusses and minuses, main plus being less sustain feels faster playing faster passages, slightly more bebop-and-beyond friendly color/feel).
The most useful insights I can offer:
- it takes about 30 days, usually, for my factory to complete a custom order.
- I don't think my line is from the same factory as Taishan (but I don't know enough about Taishan to say for sure -- have never worked on one, that I can recall).
- I would not order from any other factory than the one I use, but my own prototype survey was not at all exhaustive, though I did order from more than one factory in the same region as the one I use, and I would not use the others because it's too much work to get them to the point where I'd put my reputation behind the final product.
- I would not sell the Crescents -- in any pitching -- in the playing condition they're in when they arrive from China; they play fine, the seatings are excellent, but each pitching has different flaws that need correction or improvement, and adjustment is to me unacceptable. No BS: I would not sell without servicing and playing at length because my reputation is the most valuable possession I have, professionally, and I could not put it behind any of the horns as they are when they arrive.
- I have recently stopped ordering the tenors from the factory making the Crescents because their customer service has deteriorated past an acceptable point -- this is relevant in that when ordering custom there is a lot of risk that what one received in an untested, un-established order combination may not be what was ordered. I do order the baris custom, still, but they come from a different factory, I think, than the sops, altos & tenors.
...may it be of use.
