Biggest gear mistake is thinking a SYOS artist mouthpiece by player X is going to make you sound like player X. Generally good points though. But people need to stick to ONE thing and learn it. Joe Henderson I believe played on everything that CAME with the sax, including the stock mouthpiece.
The biggest gear mistakes I made: - thinking the Mark VI is the best horn ever made. They can be great, they can also be pretty limp-D, and the sound is a cliche, which beings me to my next mistake... - thinking that good players know what the hell they qre talking about just because they are good players. I wasted a lot of money buying what my instructors told me I should get, money I actually earned myself unlike the brats I went to school with. 90% of the books and fancy ligs and mouthpieces and reeds they recommended I never found very useful, and let them make me feel like the problem was with me. I had to try a lot of instructors bwfore I even found one that could explain music theory without confusing me, because they didnt understand it too well themselves. I remember 25 years ago trying to sell a mint condition 1935 Conn 6m for $500 in a room full of music professors and all but one turned their nose up at it. That guy was surprised that they didnt know Bird played one, nor did they care being of thw notion that everything pre-Mark VI was primitive junk. Today I could get 5 grand for that horn because even the case was perfect. Most important lesson is to never assume someone knows whats best for you just because they can play. A lot of the time good players are extremely arrogant and every bit as stupid.
Yup! I still have and play/gig with my '58 Buescher 400 Top Hat & Cane tenor that my Dad bought me new for $400 when I was in 7th grade. Ten years later I bought a new '68 Mark VI Tenor for $900. I sold the Mark VI in '71.
I prefer to see with the tenor?
Biggest gear mistake is thinking a SYOS artist mouthpiece by player X is going to make you sound like player X.
Generally good points though. But people need to stick to ONE thing and learn it. Joe Henderson I believe played on everything that CAME with the sax, including the stock mouthpiece.
The biggest gear mistakes I made:
- thinking the Mark VI is the best horn ever made. They can be great, they can also be pretty limp-D, and the sound is a cliche, which beings me to my next mistake...
- thinking that good players know what the hell they qre talking about just because they are good players. I wasted a lot of money buying what my instructors told me I should get, money I actually earned myself unlike the brats I went to school with. 90% of the books and fancy ligs and mouthpieces and reeds they recommended I never found very useful, and let them make me feel like the problem was with me. I had to try a lot of instructors bwfore I even found one that could explain music theory without confusing me, because they didnt understand it too well themselves. I remember 25 years ago trying to sell a mint condition 1935 Conn 6m for $500 in a room full of music professors and all but one turned their nose up at it. That guy was surprised that they didnt know Bird played one, nor did they care being of thw notion that everything pre-Mark VI was primitive junk. Today I could get 5 grand for that horn because even the case was perfect. Most important lesson is to never assume someone knows whats best for you just because they can play. A lot of the time good players are extremely arrogant and every bit as stupid.
Yup! I still have and play/gig with my '58 Buescher 400 Top Hat & Cane tenor that my Dad bought me new for $400 when I was in 7th grade. Ten years later I bought a new '68 Mark VI Tenor for $900. I sold the Mark VI in '71.