Bassic Sax

Image courtesy of the Telegraph-Journal. Copyright 2004 Photo by Noel Chenier

 
If you’re looking for a FAQ page, I don’t have one.  However, I have developed a page which might lead you to the answer you’re seeking. If you have a question you’d like to ask me, check out the Please Read This page. Thanks!

Welcome to the 5^th incarnation of Bassic-Sax.ca.

It’s hard to believe that this version has been up for over 2 years now. It must nearly be time for a site redesign, right? I certainly hope not. With any luck at all, I’ll get a bit more mileage out of this style before website styles change completely.

For those of you who are familiar with the old site—pre-Summer 2009—you will see that the old content has been incorporated into this new version. Wherever possible, I have updated the information, and have added new photos.

If you have bookmarked pages on the old site, you will notice that the old version still exists. (And Google still refers people there all the time as well.) I still plan on adding redirects from each of the old pages, over to their corresponding new versions. However, I have had too much on my plate to tackle this enormous job.

In addition to the information that already existed on my old site, I have added a great deal of new material to this portion of my site. Bassic-sax.ca currently—as of November 1, 2011—has 225 published pages of material. Contained in all those pages are 208 photo galleries (don’t ask me how many photos they contain), as well as a separate media library that contains 319 images.

In order to help you navigate your way around this rather large site better, I added some extra navigational breadcrumbs for you today. You’ll find them in the header, just under the tag line: Bassically A Site About All Things Sax.

Since my love is vintage saxophones, they are very well represented on bassic-sax.ca. I have focused a lot on European saxes, and specifically, ones of German origin. I’ve opted to write about the brand names that are rather uncommon, and for which very little has previously been written in English. More brand histories are coming. I just have to find the time to finish my research. On the top of my list are: Oscar Adler, Max Keilwerth, and B&S horns.

The Bassic Sax Blog—which some people have thought is a site unto itself—is really just a part of Bassic-Sax.ca. As of  November 1, 2011, there are 1,216 published posts, in 51 categories, with 298 tags.

The gallery portion of my site, Bassic Sax Pix, is a catalogue of images of some of the best—and/or the most interesting—saxophones ever built. (OK, some regular, everyday, normal ones have made their way in there as well.) As of November 1, 2011, there are 10,161 images in 1351 categories, with lots more on the way.

No matter how you look at it, that’s a whole lotta’ sax all in one place! And I am far from finished. As you go look through this, the main portion of Bassic Sax, you’ll stumble across sections that I’m still in the process of working on.

I sincerely hope you enjoy Bassic Sax, and just as importantly, find it useful. If you have any comments, you will find a Contact Us button located at the bottom of every page. There is also a separate Contact page if you prefer.

All the images on this site are copyrighted! Individual images, audio and video clips, written texts, etc, may have their own copyright. The original creator of these works maintains any copyright. Use of any of the files on this site without prior permission of the copyright holder is strictly prohibited. If you feel that any content is in violation of copyright, please contact me.

For permission to use any of my personal images (those clearly watermarked with a copyright Bassic Sax), please send me a request. I am very generous with my permissions, and I rarely deny those who ask me politely if they can use my images.

Please do not steal my bandwidth by linking to images on my site! My web designer keeps a close eye on the use of bandwidth, and I keep an eye on my stats, so if there is any violation of this linking request we will notify your ISP, and change the image to something that says “I’m a thief. I steal bandwidth.” If my web designer is in a particularly bad mood that day, you’ll get a rather nasty image appearing on your site as well, which will result in your site being taken offline by your host. It’s not worth the risk!

Here’s a listing the newest additions to Bassic-sax.ca:

1. I have added a small piece of software that now allows you to view the newest pages and page updates through the RSS feed button. Since it is the first generation of the plugin, there are still some refinements that it will undergo in the next while. At present it doesn’t seem to send updates to my Outlook RSS Feedreader. I haven’t tried any others though. In any event, if you click on the RSS feed cube on the bottom left of any page of the site, you will see the latest 15 changes to the site.

2. I have been on the hunt for a good search option for this website since it was launched in the summer of 2009. Finally a few weeks ago I found one. This morning I added an advanced Search Page which will allow you to search all 220+ pages of bassic-sax.ca extremely well. This search software comes with a help feature, so you can get assistance in customizing your searches.

Unfortunately due to the navigation bar limitations I have with my current template, I have had to do some re-jigging of my headings to accommodate this new search page. However, what I have now is much more streamlined, and in my opinion, better organized. This morning I added an About page which now has Musician, Teacher, and Gear as subcategories.

3. Also in the area of navigation, I added what are known as “breadcrumbs” to this site a little while ago. These breadcrumbs allow you to see where you are in this site, and also act as links backward. They are located under the tag line Bassically A Site About All Things Sax.

I’ve highlighted them with green underline in the above screen shot for illustration purposes only.

4. The Sax-Shaped “Things” section gets updated more than any other portion of my site. I recently added a number of new vintage toys and instruments including:

• A Japanese-made Yedo, that strongly resembles the Haro.
• A clear, green toy saxophone made of Duperite.
• A vintage, red metal toy sax from the UK.
• And my favourite, a Toneking 3000, saxophone-shaped trumpet by Julius Keilwerth.
• Oh, and how could I have forgotten the Sax-A-Boom? If it hadn’t been for Jack Black, these things would have faded into obscurity by now I suspect.