Skip to main content

Yamaha Custom "Z" Tenor Sax YTS82Z

That's it. I have no more excuses. I have to really start playing now...
On Saturday, after several hours of talking and drinking we (Evelyn & I) achieved the state of mutual understanding of the necessity of acquiring a new instrument. Basically, she convinced me, that I need one.
Since "we are not rich, so we can't afford cheap things" attitude was a driving force behind all financial decisions in our family for the last 20+ years, the plan was to go for the gold (no pun intended). I was to start researching the market, going places, and checking out various horns in order to find the one and only I would like to play for the rest of my life.
The candidates were Selmer III Series, Selmer Reference 54, and, may be, pro-level Yamaha, or Yanagisawa, to compare at least - don't I need to know what I want before I spend 4+ kilobucks on something shiny? They don't make Mark VI anymore, that's a shame; however, used one is not an option for me: I like to scratch and drop my things myself (seriously, I firmly believe, that some things should not have more than one owner: photocameras, cars, and musical instruments).
Well... nothing ever goes as planned in our family. Since the only store within reasonable driving distance, and open on Sunday, was Sam Ash Music Corporation, we started there. Since the top model they had in stock was Yamaha YTS-82Z, that was the first one I tried.
From the moment I laid my hands on it, I knew, that was It. It was a significantly lighter, than Amati Super Classic, I played for 28(!) years (until this moment), yet it felt solid and precize. The mechanism, slightly unfamiliar at first, was, however, very convenient, and the action was very crisp and defined.
After I blew first couple of notes, I was done. The response in the low register was incredible, the upper register played effortlessly as well... I looked at Evelyn, and she said: "This is your sound..."
I did try some other horns (old Cohns and Kings) at the store that day, but, mostly to assure myself that they don't even come close to this one. They didn't.
May be I should have had waited a little, may be I should have tried Ref. 54, but... Hey, I am a fatalist, after all.
I have a real instrument now. I am as set, as I ever will be (I think).
Sweet deal, too, nearly a grand under street price....

Popular posts from this blog

{position:fixed} in iOS 6

I stumbled upon this oddity when upgrading to iOS 6 while working on a mobile advertising project, and it took me a better part of the day to figure out what is going on: all of a sudden an element {position:fixed} stopped working in a correct manner (which is staying put, while the page is scrolling), and started "sticking" to the scrolling page, moving out of the viewport, and then just "jumping" back to the correct location after the scrolling was finished.If you scroll this page , you will see it—hint: that's the one labeled "broken"—assuming that you have a correct device/browser combination. Mine was iPhone4 and iOS 6.0 (6.0.1-6.1.3 behaves just the same). On the original page, where I first encountered the problem, all of my elements were created dynamically using JavaScript, but at the end of the day (literally) it become clear, that the glitch is in the iOS 6 CSS implementation.Here is what happens: if you have an element {position:fixed} whic...

WordPress: How to add custom fonts to a twenty seventeen child theme.

Quick help to those who have tried to find some help and failed (as I have so I have to write the code myself). Assuming that you have your virgin child theme configured and activated: here is a function which goes into the functions.php file (of your configured and activated child theme): function childtheme_twentyseventeen_fonts_url() { $replace_original_font = true; // unless you really like Libre Franklin if ($replace_original_font !== true) { $hyph = '-custom-'; } else { $hyph = '-'; }; $font_families = array( //add your Google fonts and weights (400 and 700 are defaults for normal and bold) here: 'Oswald:200,400,700', 'Lato:200,400,700', ); $query_args = array( 'family' => urlencode( implode( '|', $font_families ) ), 'subset' => urlencode( 'latin,latin-ext' ), ); $fonts_url = add_query_arg( $query_args, 'https://fonts.googleapis.com/css' ); wp_enqueue_style( 'twentyseventeen' ....

Have to do something about something

I recently realized, that I haven't been doing any 3D work for month now. I also noticed, that the last movie I made, wasn't all that exciting of a project. For some reason my interests shifted - again - to another area, which is, in turn, split between standard-based web design, and making music with GarageBand. May be, I should concentrate on something; just may be. May be, I will achieve some sort of recognizable and reputable state in that area, whatever that area would be. May be, people will refer to me as an authority on some obscure subject, like cross-browser implementation of unordered lists, or making Apple-compatible loops, I will become famous, and will receive an incredible job offer (this last statement is about as realistic, as me winning a lottery, considering that I never play). Somebody just sent an email to my wife, asking if she still gives art lessons. I couldn't help noticing custom domain name in the email address, so I checked it out: very decent ...