The Vibratosax, aka the future of student/marching saxophones

In late 2010/early 2011, Vibrato Co. released their highly anticipated saxophone known as the Vibratosax. For those of you unfamiliar with this product, the Vibratosax is the first polycarbonate saxophone available on market. The Vibratosax is being compared to the Grafton saxophone because of the white plastic body look. Unlike the Grafton, the Vibratosax features a body made out of ABS and polycarbonate and keys made out of the same material. The rods are aluminum brushed white and the pads are made out of silicone. An interesting aspect of the silicone pads is they are self-leveling (they are kind of on a pivot to move around freely), so they adjust to go over the tone hole entirely. Also, the pads are supposed to be easy to change because you just pop the old one out of the hole and put a new one in. Vibrato Co. offers many different colored pads to add to your saxophone to customize the look. Instead of using traditional needle springs, the Vibratosax uses coiled springs. These springs can be replaced with springs of more or less tension depending upon preference. The Vibratosax is being marketed as a cheap saxophone for beginners. I can see this saxophone being used for young children (it only weighs 850 grams) or marching band (no need to worry about using your nice horn when it's raining or snowing or intonation being affected by a cold horn). Currently, there are two models available: the A1 and A1S. The difference is the A1S is made of solid polycarbonate. According to the site, an A1SG (gold colored pads) is on it's way as well as a tenor and soprano model. I look forward to the progress of the Vibratosax and hope to try one.


The A1S Vibrato sax on the left, Grafton on the right