They are more shaped and tactile than on most saxes and the F# trill and top F# keys are large vaguely oval plates which are positioned to allow the player to take top F# with a flat RH ring finger instead of the tip of that finger. The first thing I noticed about the keywork was the unusual design of the RH side keys (Bb, C, top E, trill F#, top F#). The springing was pretty even but half an hour's fettling with a good technician such as Mark Bishop would have been worthwhile. This soprano was in good playing condition, not perfect, but certainly good enough to play properly.
(BTW, what is ‘vintage brass’? I think they mean the look of it, not that it’s old brass they’ve dug up from war-time shell casings, so let’s put that down to PR hype and move on eh?) Sal told us that there will not be a dual neck version. It's a one-piece instrument with a straight neck and underslung octave mechanism. It has a rather attractive earthy brown body that is actually 'vintage raw brass with clear lacquer finish', and 'brushed nickel silver' keywork ( ). For instance, when I recently had to buy a new Selmer soprano (having written off my previous one) I went through 12 instruments before finding one I thought I could live with (!). Alsod I think that things that bother me may not be an issue for you. So, to cut to the point, I'm very, very picky and critical of soprano saxes. I spend huge amounts of my playing life in the top octave+ of the soprano sax and intonation and focus are just critical for me. But secondly and far more importantly I've always had an issue with the intonation on Keilwerth sopranos: this can take much longer to adjust to. Now, this aspect is just a matter of familiarity and I don't think it would take me long to adjust. Firstly the keywork has always seemed rather industrial, much less smooth and refined than a Selmer and placed in somewhat different positions ergonomically. My problems with Keilwerth sopranos have been two-fold. Both were terrific instruments, but I really always felt that the Keilwerth tenors were the best of their range I could have played their altos with a bit of adjustment, but.I was never really happy on their sopranos.
I had a short stint with a Couf tenor in the 1970s and a couple of years with an SX90R tenor in the 1990s. I'm a Selmer player and have been for most of my career. The new Keilwerth soprano in Sax.co.uk is actually the Liebman model the SX90DL - not the Liebman Signature SX90DLS - but to all intents and purposes according to Sal Maniscalco these two models are very similar from the playing pov.
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