Plastic Saxophone

Plastic Saxophone, The plastic sax came on the scene in the guise of the Grafton Saxophone. The Grafton sax is a design icon but probably not the worlds most playable or durable sax.

Designed and built in the fifties and made from plastic it was designed to appeal to the masses because of it's cheap purchase price compared to most saxes of the day.

Looks wise it was very art deco in appearance with bold plastic moulded lines and curves running down and around it's white body and bell. It was creamy white with a brass neck and keys. It does actually look like something straight out of the late twenties, early thirties.

The sound is, well quite odd. You know it's a saxophone but you can't really place it. For me it sounds quite tinny? like too much treble and not enough bass on your music system.

Famous players include Ornette Coleman who I believe played it on the album 'The Shape of Jazz to Come' and Charlie Parker. Charlie Parkers Grafton sold at auction for approx £96,000.

Now before you all go running out of the door searching for a cheap Grafton to make pots of money on I'll let you know it's extremely rare to find one of these beauties in perfect working order.

They were made of cheap plastic at a time when plastic was a fairly new material, thus they have a tendancy for cracking, snapping and general breaking. Needless to say although used by high profile players they never really took off and production ended about a decade after it began.

Plastic Sax

So we herald a new era of plastic saxophones. This time from a company called vibrato sax.

Looks wise, well it's white, most definitely white. I've also seen a shocking pink prototype! It looks like any normal sax that has been plastic coated which gives it a very chunky look.

Sound? No idea. The company was supposed to put the sax on the market in Jan 2008 but apparently that never happened. I've tried to access the website but no joy there so whether they are still aiming to market this item is a bit of an unknown.

Make your own judgements, but whether we will actually see a plastic sax back on the market is, I suppose, in the hands of the gods.

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