The balmy New England "Indian summer" came to an abrupt end, this week. I'm way ahead of the game, though, this year. No need to wait for the stratum corneum to raise its horny defense. I liked the Travel Tech with YJL Sterling clone handle so much, it's practically all I shave with now. Loaded with the Ming Shi Diamond blade, super close is the default. So instead of my skin hardening, it's just been getting tender. Time to switch things up!
Parker TTO "Ruby" couldn't keep up with the Diamond, and has been demoted to giveaway status -- I've got a nephew in mind. Baili TTO "Stella" now takes the role of gentle, steep angle bias, with just enough bite to get the BBS, when the blade is loosened slightly. But I save that for the end; my skin gets the benefit of being completely untouched for two passes. Indeed, the first pass just feels like "evening out the stubble." How dramatically shaves can change, even now! Not long ago, I thought that razor had too much bite. I considered it a little... crude. Could it become my ultimate razor?
Well, between the Tech and that, it just goes to show, money isn't everything. Speaking of Chinese manufacturing and relatives, we've been scrambling to collect the family woodwinds for my fourth-grade daughters. I'm getting misdirection from my brother's family, and I was freaking out over the prospect of renting: $30/month! Yamaha seems to be the Gillette Fusion of music. Well, just as in razor manufacturing, China is showing up the crooked middlemen of the West. Shopping for new carry cases, I found a very attractive instrument with lots of bonus items for just a couple hundred dollars online, through Amazon.
http://www.kkmusicstore.com/mendini-by-cecilio-nickel-plated-body-keys-e-flat-alto-saxophone-tuner-case-mouthpiece-11-reeds-more-p-238.html
Not in hand yet, but a player can tell from vids -- pretty much exactly the same quality as my early 80's, Indiana-made rent-to-buy. When/if I get the Armstrong back (nice play on words: heavy as hell, which they also say about this new one), I can help twin #2 with her duets.
As if in service of my razor simile, I opted for nickel plated brass (to better match a clarinet, actually). But the story really is very similar. American manufacturing gave up in the seventies -- not enough profit, too much durable, quality product in circulation. Europe picked up the slack, letting our workforce get good and dead... and then China took it all over with dirt cheap labor. Now, with the benefit of computer-assisted design and manufacturing, quality is progressing once again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIOB4R-SCI
Wow, was I wrong about Indian summer! It's the latest foliage season I can recall, balmy and red. We just took the minivan on our family tour yesterday, thanks to some quick coolant system repair by Grandpa Ricky the day before, on our 11th wedding anniversary. (Wish it had been so nice on the original occasion!)
ReplyDeleteThe girls are just about settled in with their instruments, and yeah, there might be a sticky key in that cheap sax. I'll find it, though. The mouthpiece isn't right, either -- but that's FOR ME, something I think some reviewers don't quite understand. Among my various Amazon orders, I picked up a $5 clear acrylic "for jazz," and my flabby embrochure suddenly sounded very tight and bright. I wanted my kid to have that, but her tiny wind supply needs something different. The mouthpiece she got, that mostly squeaks for me, actually works pretty well, and that's the first, toughest hurdle to clear with saxophones. We swapped ligatures, for the sake of ease -- since 30 years ago, they have come out with these one-screw, little fake leather straps, that take away the hassle of balancing tension on two screws.