chuck_cohen's Hawk Sax Music Gear Setup

In 2014, a friend of mine showed me his tenor saxophone and even let me try it out using an old tenor mouthpiece I had held onto from the 80's. It happened to be an older model Hawk tenor. I knew it wasn't a pro horn by any means, but I was surprised at how full it sounded and how easily and freely it played. When I asked him how much he spent, he said $450. "Whaa ????" ...so me being without a horn for years, I immediately set out to purchase one. It ended up being a newer model Hawk WD-S411, and was imported and sold to me at the time directly from China through a small distributor in California, ...at a cost of $329. "Double Whaa ????" ....considering good pro horns these days now cost from $1,700 to $3,000, I was a littled stunned to say the least.

The Hawk saxophone is actually what most people refer to as a "cheap Chinese carbon-copy" of one of the more-expensive saxophone brand models, and it gets branded as a "student" horn and then marketed towards band students. The truth is that there are "A LOT" of sub-standard cheap low-cost brands of horns from China in this category, and they are truly junk (literally worthless). Somehow, though, I can tell (for whatever reason) that they made this brand from a "better mold" and maybe slightly better materials, and because of that, it out-performs many of the mainstream brand student and midrange model horns.

The one "negative" is that the keys don't have the action & response of a pro horn. ....but (again) it does have a big full sound and blows freely. Intonation over the range of the horn does not appear to be a problem. After breaking the horn in over a 6-month period, I took it in to have it "benched" (adjusted), which actually improved the horn. The Hawk tenor seems to be longer and heavier than other brands I have played on, ...kind of like a Yanagisawa. I use a jazz metal mouthpiece on it that costs almost as much as the horn itself, but the end-result is a fantastic horn that does the job without spending massive amounts of money. I may invest in a better horn later, but for right now, this one is just fine!

Last thing.....the case looks OK and is small and lightweight. BUT, that is because it is made of a black fabric cover over styrofoam. Not recommended for travel or intensive live-gigging. If you want to protect the horn, get a sax pack or other case for it.

In 2014, a friend of mine showed me his tenor saxophone and even let me try it out, which happened to be an older model Hawk tenor. I knew it wasn't a pro horn by any means, but I was surprised at how full it sounded and how easily and freely it played. When I asked him how much he spent, he said $450. "Whaa ????" ...so me being without a horn for years, I immediately set out to purchase a new Hawk WD-S411 tenor that I got for the low price of $329. "Double Whaa ????" ....considering good pro horns these days now cost from $1700 to $3,000, a was a littled stunned to say the least, but I liked the tenor so much that I eventually bought a Hawk WD-S414 alto sax as well through the same distributor ....for a whopping $303.

The Hawk saxophone is actually what most people refer to as a "cheap Chinese carbon-copy" of one of the more-expensive saxophone brand models, and it gets branded as a "student" horn and then marketed towards band students. The truth is that there are "A LOT" of sub-standard cheap low-cost brands of horns from China in this category, and they are truly junk (literally worthless). Somehow, though, I can tell (for whatever reason) that they made this brand from a "better mold" and maybe slightly better materials, and because of that, it out-performs many of the mainstream brand student and midrange model horns.

The one "negative" is that the keys don't have the action & response of a pro horn. ....but (again) it does have a big full sound and blows freely. Intonation over the range of the horn does not appear to be a problem. After a break-in period, I took in the horn to have it "benched" (adjusted), which actually improves the horn. The Hawk alto seems to be slightly smaller and lighter weight than other brands I have played on. I use a Claude-Lakey jazz mouthpiece on it, and the end-result is a fantastic horn that does the job without spending massive amounts of money. I may invest in a better horn later, but for right now, this one is just fine!

Last thing.....the case looks OK and is small and lightweight. BUT, that is because it is made of a black fabric cover over styrofoam. Not recommended for travel or intensive live-gigging. If you want to protect the horn, get a sax pack or other case for it.

I was in Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center in 2014 shopping for a new tenor sax metal mouthpiece. I spent about 4 hours there trying different ones out, and I was getting upset, ....because I really didn't like anything I had tried, even the ones that I thought I would like (Berg, Theo Wanne, Jody Jazz). I was starting to think, "Is it just me? Do I suck that bad?" The very last one I tried was the Eugene Rousseau Metal Jazz, size 8 facing, and then ...everything came together. I love this mouthpiece! It is so easy to play on, it is powerful and cutting, and allows me to play with great dynamic range with ease. I noticed that the cut and the bore of the mouthpiece looked "strangely" familiar. That is because ....it is the successor to the older (discontinued) silver Selmer Metal Jazz sax mouthpieces, .....one of which I owned and played on 40 years ago. It then seems that ....I am (and have always been) very familiar with this mouthpiece. The Rousseau mouthpiece just massively "improves" on the older Selmer design (gotta luv it)!

NOTE: It does come "stock" with a decent Rovner ligature and cap.

As a music major in college, I had a sax professor (from North Texas State University, biggest jazz school in the country) who changed out my mouthpiece & reed set-up in order to make my sound different and better. The new mouthpiece was a Claude Lakey Original Jazz, size 6* facing and Vandoren reeds. I sounded radically different, more buzzy, more like David Sanborn, ....more than that, I could even do the high note "cracks" he does all the time and that is the trademark of his playing style (I couldn't do those before). Decades later I had to purchase a new alto sax and a new mouthpiece. What do you think I got? (...you guessed it!) :-)

They do make a metal jazz mouthpiece called the "Apollo" which is probably a very good mouthpiece, maybe better than the Original, but it costs a lot more. I am familiar and happy with the Original.