Before you play a note on this , observes John Robert Brown, noted jazz writer and author of ‘How To Play Saxophone’, you will have already admired the plush-lined solid ABS case that the outfit comes in, and already the Odyssey looks like good value. Then you pick up the alto from its snug resting place,
fit the mouthpiece to the crook and assemble both to the body. Everything is as it should be. The neck cork is cut to exactly the right diameter to ensure a firm mouthpiece fit (not always so with some instruments) and the joint between crook and body is just right - airtight, non-slip, but importantly not over-tight. After spending some considerable time with the Odyssey alto sax, analysing the keywork and playing the instrument, Mr Brown observed that ‘...the Odyssey instrument design seems to amalgamate the best of the current ideas, as defined
by Selmer, Yamaha and Yanagisawa, without extravagant engineering luxuries, but miraculously built down to a price’.

So how does the Odyssey play? Well, I took great care to tune to A=440Hz and used a selection of mouthpieces. As you might have expected of an instrument so carefully designed, I can confidently report that the Odyssey alto
works well. The scale is in tune, the notes all speak easily, the tone is substantial and, important to any veteran player, I can get it to sound as though I’m playing it, not just anyone - and that’s good!

What still puzzles me is, how can the manufacturers do it for the price..?


ODYSSEY EB ALTO SAXOPHONE OUTFIT,
£399.00

Copyright Gear Magazine 2007 http://www.jhs.co.uk/gearmagazine.html