What makes a sax is the brass and the cone and the tone holes and keys, not to mention the player. Straight or curved, it's still a sax. A girl in my high school played a metal clarinet--I always thought that looked wrong, but it was still a clarinet. It is separated from the sax mostly by shape (straight, same diameter throughout, except for bell--rather than conical, like the sax). The difference in shape makes a huge difference in sound. I like the straight soprano better, though I don't recall ever trying to play a curved one. The curved ones look too much like toys, since there seems to be little reason to curve them. Even an alto would play practically straight into the floor if it wasn't curved (at least when sitting). The soprano doesn't have that problem. Plus, I have no problem hearing myself when playing the straight soprano.

I remember our third grade class playing tonette once a week. The teacher accompanied us on a autoharp. In fourth grade we had the oppotunity to play in the district band program. All the school clarinets were a silver metal of some sort. A few kids had their own wood clarinets.The is the first time I remember seeing the name Le Blanc (spelling?). I had my old hunk 'o junk Buescher alto. I've had a soprano less than a year, and it is a straight one.