AN  INTERVIEW WITH  STEVE  “SAXGOURMET”  GOODSON:  SAXOPHONE  DESIGNER
BY RICHARD  FENNO

I first met Steve Goodson about six years ago when I needed a baritone sax player for a Marcia Ball gig at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.  I knew that his shop in New Orleans had attained a real cult status among touring professionals, and had heard that his playing was at least equal to his legendary sax repair skills.  When I stopped by his shop, I quickly got a good idea what all the buzz was about: the walls are absolutely covered with autographed photos of everyone from Michael Brecker to Maceo Parker to Jim Horn to Ben Ellman. Steve and his assistants were knee deep in exotic horns to repair and modify, and the repair shop pulsed with energy while Red Prysock blasted from the CD player.

Steve’s take-no-prisoners playing style and swaggering stage presence lived up to his advanced billing, and I decided to leave my alto for a much-needed overhaul.  When I picked the horn up a few weeks later, I was in total shock from the first note: it was a totally different instrument! The dynamic range was vastly increased; the dead sounding notes were gone; the intonation was corrected; and the horn felt better than new. I was hooked. I became one of the faithful.

Over the years, I have made a point of visiting Steve’s shop whenever I am near New Orleans. You never know who you will meet there, or what interesting saxophone projects that he will be undertaking.  When I learned that Steve had been engaged to design an entirely new  “state of the art” saxophone for Unison, I made it my business to find out exactly what goes into the design of a new horn, and what surprises Steve has cooked up for the saxophone world.

RF: HOW DID YOU COME TO BE INVOLVED WITH UNISON?

SG: Two of my clients had seen the horns at a trade show, and they couldn’t stop talking about how well they played. Now one of these clients was Santy Runyon, and believe me, I listen to Santy!  He’s 95 years old, and has taught everybody from Charlie Parker to Stan Getz to Harry Carney. Of course, he is the genius behind the Runyon mouthpieces, and probably has forgotten more about what actually goes on inside a saxophone than anybody else will ever know.  Santy wouldn’t shut up about the horns.  I had an opportunity to see one and check it out about a month later, and I was really amazed. The thing played great. I took it apart and saw that the finish work was really fine, and that the materials used for screws, pads, and springs were really the best available, and so I arranged for an introduction to the USA importer, Shun-Hwa Chang.  He and I talked for a while, and he flew down to New Orleans to spend a few days with me to talk about the state of saxophones today.  Shun-Hwa is a collector, and has a deep appreciation for the great horns of the past.  We hit it off, and I was brought on board to design a new series of horns.

RF: WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER HORNS ON THE MARKET?

SG: As long as there have been saxophones, they have all suffered from the same problems: high C# and the palm key notes sound thin and are out of tune; the break from G2 to A2 is unresponsive; D2 is stuffy; the G# pad sticks; the lower stack compound mechanism leaks; the low C, B, and B flat all sound like they’re coming out of different horns; there are places where the key mechanism just doesn’t feel right; and the slightest adjustment issue necessitates a trip to the repair shop. We literally made a list of these problems and wrote down potential solutions to try.

RF: WHAT’S WRONG WITH CURRENT PRODUCTION HORNS FROM MAJOR MANUFACTURERS?

SG: Horns produced today are much better intonation-wise than horns of the past. I believe pretty strongly that most of the majors are really only interested in maintaining the status quo.  I was given the opportunity to start with a clean sheet of paper, and Unison gave me the resources to try alternative solutions to see what worked best. There are some really great horns out there right now. I’m a big fan of the Selmer Series III and the Yanigasawa’s in particular. The Yamaha Custom series has good intonation, and the Keilwerth has a nice full voice.

RF: SO HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT DEVELOPING A NEW DESIGN SINCE MOST OF THE PROBLEMS YOU MENTIONED SEEM TO BE ACCOUSTICAL?

SG: There’s next to nothing published about saxophone design principals, you have to really dig to find any research.  Of course the work of Arthur Benade is the foundation of it all. I’ve studied all of his books, and got hold of some previously unpublished papers.  The Ernest Ferron book, The Saxophone Is My Voice contains some of the basic math for bore tapers and tone hole placement. It has recently been translated into English, and was a great help. Ferron has some really great stuff on neck design, too. I also got a few ideas from Jap Kool’s Das Saxophone, which was translated by Dr. Lawrence Gwodz. There are a couple of doctoral dissertations that I found which were very helpful. As much as anything, I studied the great horns of the past that came across my repair bench, and took notes and measurements on what seemed to work the best.

RF: WHAT CAN YOU DO DIFFERENTLY TO IMPROVE THE TUNING PROBLEMS?

SG: The neck is the heart of the sound.  I’ve been experimenting with neck modifications for years.  We’ve found that changes in the taper of the neck and relocating and resizing the octave pip can bring about some rather dramatic results.  This is a fairly well known “trick of the trade” amongst the top repair techs in the world.  You can actually calculate which section of the neck influences a particular note, and modify the taper at that point to alter the offending pitch.  I learned a great deal about the critical importance of the neck when I was involved in the development of the Masterpiece aftermarket necks. We tried lots of different things, and finally found a design that worked really well.  Tone hole placement and bore size play an important role as well, but the neck is really where it all starts. If this weren’t so, nobody would be buying all of the aftermarket necks from Oleg; Peter Ponzol;Gloger; and the others.  You might say that a lot of this new Unison model was designed around the neck, and you would be right. The neck design allowed us to take advantage of some other opportunities, and we’re quite proud of the results.

RF: SO THE NECK DESIGN DICTATED THE BORE AND TONE HOLE PLACEMENT?

SG: I wouldn’t say that it dictated it, but it did allow some more aggressive design which let us reduce resistance and increase response. Getting the neck right gave us some new opportunities to explore.

RF: HOW CAN YOU CHANGE A NECK TO DECREASE RESISTANCE?

SG: You’ve got to think like a plumber!  Small pipes are resistant, open pipes are more free blowing. The curve, particularly on a tenor neck, should be gradual. Sharp angles increase turbulence and cause resistance. You’ve also got to consider how the angle of the neck impacts a player’s posture. If the player has to chase the neck with the head, there will be constriction in the player’s air stream. I got some really good feedback from Don Menza on neck angles. He played some of our early prototypes last January, and really opened my eyes about the effect of playing posture on the air stream.

RF: WHY THE “UNDERSLUNG” OCTAVE MECHANISM?

SG: Because it lets us get a little assistance from gravity in keeping the octave key from blowing open when its not supposed to be raised.  No magic, just taking advantage of the laws of nature!

RF: I COULDN’T HELP NOTICING THAT THE HORNS HAVE THREE OCTAVE VENTS. WHAT’S THAT ALL ABOUT?

SG: In the perfect world you would have twelve octave vents, one for every semitone in an octave. This would be a mechanical nightmare, and is in no way practical. The required mechanism would be far too complex. There have been some interesting attempts at adding additional vents in the past: the Loomis Double Resonance horns and the Buffet Powell both had multi-vents. The only horn that had a system that really worked was the Conn 28M “Constellation”, which was designed by Santy Runyon.  I spent a lot of time talking with Santy about the system they used on the 28, and he saved me a lot of trial and error time!  Think about the problem this way: the horn needs a separate vent for every semitone. You can’t build a reliable system that uses twelve vents, so you’ve got to compromise and find a number of vents that can work reliably and still accomplish the mission at hand, which is destroying the fundamental and causing the first overtone to sound.  Since the beginning, saxophones have had two octave vents and they were, by definition, in the wrong place.  You have to compromise. By adding the additional vent, we made the horn less compromised. The biggest difference you will notice is that the D2 is speaking with a clear, full voice, and that the transition from G2 to A2 is effortless.  The system is mechanically rather simple so there are no additional maintenance or regulation worries. The body vents are screw adjustable for opening height so you can tailor the amount of venting to your individual mouthpiece and playing style.
 
 

RF: WHAT IS THE GIZMO UNDER THE OCTAVE KEY TOUCH?

SG: It’s a compensator key that brings the notes C#3 and above into tune. These notes are always sharp, and lack a full voice. If you made the tone holes a larger diameter in order to correct the thin voice, then the sharpness gets worse.  By using this mechanism, which involves no extra springs or tone holes, the notes C#3 and above speak with a full voice and are in tune. Now that’s a saxophone first! This mechanism also has a regulating screw so it can be adjusted for the players needs and preference. This is a good example of how defining the problem and finding a solution led to the opportunity to resolve other issues. I was initially just concerned with intonation on the high notes, but realized after we built a couple of prototypes that we could make the tone holes larger, stay on pitch, and resolve the thinness issue. I also think getting the neck taper right helped make this possible.

RF: YOU GUARANTEE THAT THE G#  PAD WILL NEVER STICK.  MAKE ME BELIEVE YOU!

SG: This was the easiest and most obvious solution of all. It’s also the number one problem that players complained to us about on our marketing survey. Think about how your G# mechanism works: you’ve got a strong spring holding down a weak spring. The pad is usually in contact with the tone hole and accumulates moisture so it tends to stick.   We added an additional spring that helps pull the pad open when the key is depressed, but does not act on the mechanism when the pad is closed, so it doesn’t cause a leak. I’ve had this modification on my personal Selmer VI for about 15 years, and have never had a problem with sticking G# pads.  I’ve added this feature to lots of my repair customer’s horns. It works. It’s simple. That’s the best solution, the simple one.

RF: WHAT’S WITH THE DOUBLE ARMS ON THE LOWER KEYS?

SG: I’d love to take credit for the idea, but I can’t! This has been around for a long time, first being used on the King Super 20. We’ve just taken it a couple of steps farther: if the key cup is attached to the rod at two points, it can’t move in a horizontal plane. The lower key cups are the largest on the horn, and travel the greatest distance. They’ve always been the first ones to go out of adjustment, because the cups flex on the shaft. We fixed that by using double arms. It’s really a no brainer, and for the life of me I don’t understand why every manufacturer isn’t doing it.

RF: I NOTICED LOTS OF ADJUSTMENT SCREWS ALL OVER THE HORN. WHAT DO THEY DO?

SG: First let me say that this is not a horn that requires you to sleep with a screwdriver in your pocket to keep it in adjustment!  We anticipate that a good percentage of these horns will be used by touring professionals, and we’ve attempted to make it easy for the player to keep the horn up and running perfectly while on the road.  When I was touring full time, I was really forced to hone my repair skills. The adjustment screws that we provide all regulate the common trouble points on a saxophone: the upper stack C bar; the lower stack F# bar; and a couple that are really unique to this model. We added an adjusting screw to regulate the closing of the Bis pad by the A key touch, which I think will cause the repair technicians of the world to propose me for sainthood; an extra bar with adjusting screw to insure that the F# pad is tightly sealed; adjusting screw for the Tri-Vent octave system; and of course the usual G#, Bb; low C# regulators that you find on any top line horn.  These adjusters will enable the owner to keep the horn in top regulation without making a trip to the repair shop for minor adjustments.

RF: I ALSO NOTICE A FEW UNUSUAL KEY TOUCHES........

SG: Shun-Hwa and Gregory really encouraged me to think outside the box.  I wanted the front F key to be easier to use, so we made it a little larger and added a roller. You can now make the transition from high C to high F much more easily, without having to actually lift the left-hand index finger. I raised the height of the chromatic F# key so you don’t have to bend the right hand finger back and down in order to reach it.  We added “feet” to the chromatic Bb and chromatic C finger touches so they don’t flex. The low C, low Eb, and low Bb spatulas are all enlarged and have a nice raised section so you don’t have to stretch the pinky fingers to get to them easily. There aren’t any new “mystery keys” that you have to learn how to use.  This horn works like any other saxophone, it’s just far easier to play your best on.  You simply don’t have to work as hard to get the results you want.

RF: THE LOWER BOW SEEMS TO BE UNUSALLY LARGE.  IS IT?

SG: When we made our list of common saxophone problems, even response at the bottom of the horn was near the top of the list. Think of your saxophone as a series of four cones: the neck, the body tube, the bow, and the bell, each with a different taper.  During the production run of the Selmer Mk VI, they changed the bow three times! We did a couple of different things with the bow: yes, it is of a larger diameter than you usually see, and you’ll notice that the tone holes are a little taller than normal. The increased volume of the tone hole chimneys has the effect of further increasing the diameter of the bow. Now if you pay close attention and do the math just right, you can get the bow just right so that the low notes all speak with the same voice, not just with each other, but with the rest of the horn as well.  There’s more serious design “voodoo” in the bow than anywhere else on the horn!
 

RF: WHY INDIVIDUAL KEY GUARDS FOR THE LOW B AND LOW B FLAT?

SG: I guess the fact that it’s seriously cool looking isn’t enough?  Actually, individual guards do a much better job of protecting the most vulnerable keys on the horn. And they look cool!

RF: AND THE REASON FOR BLACK PADS IS.....?

SG: We’re having these made to our specification by Prestini. The leather is goatskin, rather than the sheepskin normally used on saxophone pads. It’s an incredibly durable leather. The felt is extra firm, about a 65 Rockwell hardness. A normal sax pad is about a 50 Rockwell, so these pads are much, much firmer. There’s a layer of brass foil between the leather and the felt, which prevents any possibility of blow through and also helps the pad keep it’s shape. The back is chipboard, which is much more rigid than cardboard, again contributing to an incredibly firm feel. They’re black because it looks cool. I wanted to have them purple, but Shun-Hwa vetoed that idea!  Seriously, this is the greatest pad you can imagine. Pads are really a neglected part of saxophone design, and are a very critical factor in how the horn plays and feels. Once again, I tried to think outside the box and try something different. The resonators on the pads are Noyeks. The ridges in the resonator significantly increase the amount of surface area, which is one factor in giving our horn its huge dynamic range. Now I’ll admit that I was asleep in high school geometry the day they talked about calculating surface area, but I do know that if you increase the amount of resonating surface area, you'll increase the potential projection and volume of the horn. We gold plated the resonators not only for beauty, but because we didn’t want a corrosion problem. The resonators themselves are stamped from aluminum, which reduces the weight of the key and allows faster execution. Unfortunately, aluminum reacts with moisture from the body. Gold, of course, does not corrode. That’s the real reason. It also looks very cool!

RF: HOW DOES THE MOUTHPIECE FIGURE INTO SAXOPHONE DESIGN?

SG: It’s absolutely critical!  Now I think I was sleeping again in that high school geometry class that I mentioned earlier, but I seem to recall that they mentioned something about truncated cones. The neck of a saxophone is a truncated cone, and if you do the math you can calculate the “missing” portion. Now that missing portion is very important, because its volume should match the volume of the tone chamber of the mouthpiece if you want to have a prayer of having good intonation. That’s why some mouthpieces just don’t work on some horns: the math is all wrong.  We’re supplying our horns with a Runyon SR mouthpiece. That’s the flagship of the Runyon line, sort of like a Link on steroids. I’ve always thought that it was Santy’s best design because it’s so flexible.  We’re including a Spoiler secondary reed, which adds considerable bite and projection without sacrificing playability; and a Varilig ligature.  Shun-Hwa is the designer of the Varilig, and it’s a great concept: it decreases resistance and makes the mouthpiece less “reed fussy”. We felt like a top of the line horn deserved not a “throwaway” mouthpiece, but one that matched it perfectly.  The mouthpiece is made of a very high technology acrylic which has great resonance characteristics. The standard facing will be a number 8, with others available on request. One more thing: the mouthpiece is a beautiful transparent blue and has a metal ring on the shank to prevent cracking.

RF: ARE THERE ANY CONSTRUCTION DETAILS THAT AREN’T READILY APPARENT TO THE EYE?

SG: Lots of little things: the pivot screws have reservoirs for lubricant; the key rods are all a little larger than they really need to be, which increases durability; the steel used in the screws is of a very high grade to reduce wear; the mother of pearl key touches are all from a vendor we found in Germany who has really high quality stuff; we’re buying our springs from a small company in England that produces really great blued steel springs; the thumb rests are both metal, not plastic. Lots of little details, but we didn’t want to scrimp on anything. The engraving is all hand cut, not laser engraved. We’re absolutely covering the bell and bow with engraving, as well as the bell flair.

RF: NOW THAT THIS PROJECT IS COMPLETED, WHAT’S NEXT?

SG: Well, this has taken three years to bring to fruition, and I’ve loved every minute of it! It’s been a life long dream of mine to be involved in something like this, and I’ll be forever indebted to Shun-Hwa Chang and Gregory Lai for making it possible. It wouldn’t have been possible at all without Gregory: he is absolutely the most skilled metal worker I have ever seen. I truly believe that you could put him in a room with a block of raw brass and a file, and in a couple of hours you would have a great playing saxophone! Everything I dreamed up, he hand made.  And don’t think for a minute that I take sole credit for the design. Gregory has been building saxophones almost all of his life, and his work is really the heart and soul of this horn.  I’m working on a Steve Goodson Model baritone next. I hope to be able to figure out a way to keep the bari from changing voices when you press the octave key! I’m also thinking about ways to eliminate the closed pads on a saxophone, like the G#, Eb, and low C#. The old masters of saxophone design said that the closed holes “devour the sound” and they’re right! There have been some attempts to resolve this issue, like the LeBlanc Rationale horns, and I think we can figure out a way to make it work and have a simple, reliable mechanism.  Is the perfect saxophone possible? I doubt it. Is a better saxophone possible?  We’re working on it.

L to R: Richard Fenno, Shun-Hwa, Steve Goodson with the Unison SG Model Prototype Tenor