Saxophones

A sound you just don't get from modern saxes

What's it like playing your own Aizen Saxophone? We think it's like the feeling you get from slipping on a cherished pair of well-worn jeans, or from listening to the purr of your finely-tuned classic motorcycle. As time goes by, the Aizen stops being just an instrument. It starts being your sax.

A vintage saxophone in pristine condition, one that's been in the closet for years, has a peculiar quality. Even though it may be perfectly adjusted, when you blow it, you feel a certain resistance. It's difficult to get the instrument to vibrate as much as you want. But then something remarkable happens. The instrument starts to respond. Little by little, the sound and the resonance get richer and deeper. Over time, the sax molds itself to your body and playing style. It takes on a tone and character all its own, intimately shaped by you--the player.

You'll find the same thing with your Aizen. After you've played it in we promise you an amazing depth and resonance of tone. Most modern saxes are pretty easy to blow from the word go. You can get a nice tone from day one. Which is ok. It feels good at first, but there's no room for growth.

Here at Aizen, we're not so sure that's the way to go about things. We think that building up a unique tone and character over time is half the fun. So, play it, have fun with it, and listen to your Aizen sax develop a vintage sound that's uniquely yours and yours alone.

Smooth playability and fat, soft vintage sound

The Selmer Mark VI burst onto the scene about 55 years ago. It became an instant legend for its superb playability, and it conquered the market immediately. Unlike other vintage saxes, Mark VIs were designed as the result of ergonomic research and this was a distinct plus. Most vintage sax keys are positioned and laid out in ways that are difficult for today's players to get used to. They sound ok, but fast phrasing is more difficult than it should be,

and a lot of these instruments just don't feel right in the hands. The first hurdle we set ourselves at Aizen was sorting out these problems. We took a selection of the most legendary vintage saxophones, like the Selmer Mark VI, and analyzed every key for its positioning, angle and how it lines up with its opposite-hand counterpart. We factored in what we'd found out, in order to achieve the most natural possible key angles and positions. So, when you pick up an Aizen, first take a minute to feel how your fingers rest on the keys. Because they'll sit there so naturally you'll need reminding that this isn't the way every saxophone feels.

The next big question we thought about was tone. Vintage saxes made from the 30s to the 60s put out a rock-solid sound--fat, deep and soft all at the same time. That's what sets them apart from most modern versions. Aiming to achieve exactly this kind of sound led us straight to the crucial question of tone holes and how to make them. We tried and compared the two different techniques: extruded tone holes and soldered tone holes. These days, extruded tone holes are standard procedure in sax manufacturing. Soldered tone holes, on the other hand, are found in some great vintage models of the past, and a few high-quality modern European saxes too.

So we tried them both, and we have to say we enjoyed working with extruded tone holes the playing response was fast, and we got a sharp-edged, well-focused sound. But the soldering method gave us what we were looking for. Although it took a lot of work, we achieved an exceptionally rich, round tone. It was something really special. We were one step closer to that vintage sound.

That fat, soft, vintage sound. Aizen wanted it. And we weren't going to compromise a single inch.

The Aizen brand first came onto the scene in 2008, as a maker of saxophone mouthpieces. We were on a mission to offer really well-handmade, high quality sax mouthpieces to just as many players as we could. But the fact is that we'd already been thinking about saxophones themselves, and making saxes, for a good four years before that. Because, in our opinion, there wasn't a single modern sax out there that really gave us what we were looking for--a rock-solid, fat, soft sound.

What we needed was the kind of outstanding craftsmanship that could achieve this sound. The search led us to many countries and took four years, and it ended well.The first time I met our craftsman in person, I talked with him about where Aizen was coming from and what we were aiming for. We started sharing our dreams and visions, and before we knew it, hours had passed. We talked into the evening, and I found that he was 100% Aizen material. It turned out we were on the same quest.

The quest being: perfection--to do whatever it took to create the perfect saxophone, with ideal sound and playability. From that day we've worked together chasing the perfect sax, testing and re-testing our work time and time again, until we were absolutely satisfied without question. We left no stone unturned and no avenue unexplored in our search for the very best possible materials and methods. The quest has taken us overseas more than twenty times as we refined our techniques over and over, through prototype after prototype. Until finally and at long last we got there. We found ourselves holding a saxophone that satisfied even us.

I think it was the single greatest challenge of my life. Please try the Aizen saxophone for yourself, along with the Aizen saxophone mouthpiece. You'll find a sound and playability like no other sax on earth.

Contact Us