Thomann CMS-600 S C- Melody Sax

See melody sax, Do melody Sax

I bought one of these to play in a band with guitar/keyboard. Have always been an alto player but secretly wanted to try tenor. This seemed like a halfway house.

The sax has a nice tone and intonation.

It has a very awkward octave key on the right side of the button. It requires to you to rock your thumb forward and hold in an uncomfortable position.

I quickly got cramp playing this. This has never been a problem with the 4 other saxes I've played. I have managed to improve it by altering the thumb pad angle with sugru.

They also sent it with a clarinet mouthpiece and no reeds. They wanted me to email them pics of the wrong mouthpiece as proof before they'd send the right one which felt impolite and suspicious when they should have been apologising profusely for their cock-up. The eventually supplied C-mouthpiece doesn't have C-specific reeds. Tenor ones fit width-wise, but they are too long proximal and need to be trimmed. This was not explained.

Zinner who made the mouthpiece have gone tits-up which may ecpain the reluctance to send me one I would check if you plan to buy this sax that they have a supplier of decent C-melody mouthpieces.

What a beauty!

I've wanted a C-Melody Sax for years - mainly because they were popular in the (distant) past for playing traditional Irish music: it's easy to get the D scale you require in order to be in the same pitch as e.g. the uillean pipes, timber flute and indeed any of the "traditional" instruments, which are usually pitched in D although of course the music is not confined to that key.

I opted for the silver plated sax. It truly is a beautiful instrument and met all my expectations. It's easy to play and produces a range of timbres from raunchy to sweetly melodic, everything you would expect from a sax. It's robust but also easy on the eye. Details like the fine tuner on the mouthpiece show that it has been designed with care and from experience.

The case it came in is excellent, light but sturdy and functional, and I was pleased to be supplied with a reed - it's not clear from the site what reeds are required for this particular instrument but it seems straightforward alto reeds do the job. Also supplied was a pad-saver and various cloths for cleaning the instrument, and some cute cotton gloves to help avoid fingerprints. A couple of swabs would have been useful and this is something I will have to improvise. A spare mouthpiece was a further welcome inclusion.

I can't fault the instrument itself and look forward to many happy hours interrogating its capacities.