Saxophone Forum


by KactuSax
(21 posts)
18 years ago

Cannonball and Keilwerth

Hey guys, So I was looking through some archives ( on this forum and others) and have found some really interesting posts on both CB horns and Keilwerth. 90% of them have said that both brands are aweful. I have recently played the new CB stone series and thought it was great! I also played a student model Keilwerth model the same day, it didn't sound as full as the CB, but still a decent horn. Anyone have any opinions on either of these brands? ( Both horns were alto, the Cb was "Raven" the Keilwerth, reg. lac.)

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  1. by saxplaya81
    (110 posts)

    18 years ago

    Re: Cannonball and Keilwerth

    Keilwerth makes an awesome pro horn, you ought to try the sx90 and sx90r, those are the pro models, i played one for about 10 years, before goin back to the selmer, it just wasnt the sound i was looking for but it was a great horn, the action is a lot smoother than my selmer and it has a lot of comfort, very powerful especially on the low end, Ernie watts plays a keilwerth sx90r black nickel alto and tenor, check out some of his stuff to get a good idea of the sound, I played a cannonball soprano about 15 years ago at a music convention, that was a pretty bad horn too, as far as tonality and action it was up there with the selmer series II, which i was playing at the time but no comparison to the series III

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    1. by Dark Eyes
      (138 posts)

      18 years ago

      Re: Cannonball and Keilwerth

      Although I will not deny that the cannonballs of 15 years ago were pretty bad they have made enormous strides in the production world in the past decade. I own "The Raven" on tenor sax and I absolutely love it. The laquer is gorgeous and it plays like a beast let off the chain. The tone is very clear and consistent from very low A (bending Bb down) all the way up to the highest altissimo. The horn is very bright and yet can also be one of the darker horns if you are commited to mastering the embrochure technique it involves. The keywork is very nice. It allows for the fastest of runs and the horn also comes with two necks said to give a bright tone (silver) and a darker tone (black nickel). I, however, have not been able to tell a huge difference but there is some. There have been people who have posted on different threads that the cannonballs come apart easily and very soon after purchase. In my experience this is entirely untrue. It may have been true with older models but not with the new ones. One thing though. If you do happen to get a cannonball make sure to take it to your local music repairman and have him give it a quick once over for leaks and loose keys. When I took mine in about a month after I bought it there were a couple of leaks and a couple keys were loose (my technician assures me that these are just things the makers look over and can easily be fixed). Other than that it still continues to play perfectly. Although I have not played the alto Raven I'm sure that the quality runs in the different models. As for the Kielworths I cannot comment because I have not played them but I stick with the advice that I have seen many others give and have adopted. Test each thouroughly. Each saxophone is different so if you try one one day and another of the same model the next day they are not necessarily the same. Try the Cannonball and the Kielworth side-by-side and see which you like better. In the end it is you who decides on what your sound will be like.

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