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Thread: sax guitar

  1. #1

    Default sax guitar

    i just bought a sax 12 string guitar. made with solid woods in the seventies. rosewood back and sides ans spruce top. it's the best 12 string i have played. so has anyone played one, or heard of one.??

    he made guitars in white rock british columbia and was a larrivee aprentice--i think.

  2. #2
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: sax guitar

    Adolphe Sax , a Belgian, created the brass Reed Instrunent that bears his Name

    https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Adolphe_Sax

    I dont think he made guitars too, but I could be Mistaken.

    Different guy with that last name I expect.
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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: sax guitar

    Google search is almost useless, since "sax" gets so many saxophone hits, even with "White Rock BC" added, that finding something about "Sax guitars" seems impossible. Searching on "luthier White Rock BC" gets nowhere with the name "Sax."

    You might try contacting some area guitar shops (here's an Acoustic Guitar Forum thread that might help), and see if any of them is familiar with the name. Realize you're talking 40 years ago, though; lotsa water under the bridge since then.
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  4. #4

    Default Re: sax guitar

    i found a guy who knew him, and he jogged my memory--I saw a couple of his 6 strings about thirty five years ago. so he was a larrivee apprentice. however he died young. still a great sounding 12. it's got me playing 12 string again. there's nothing like a great sound to inspire you to play.

  5. #5
    Registered User Bruce Clausen's Avatar
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    Default Re: sax guitar

    Probably Shelley Sax, who lived here in the Vancouver area in the seventies. I owned a really nice six-string he made here, and I'm pretty sure I met him once. I'm not sure about the connection with Larrivée, although he built in that style. I believe he had another career, and that he left the area in the early eighties.

  6. #6

    Default Re: sax guitar

    well that's interesting. never heard of shelley sax. I was told the maker was a guy named lee, down I white rock who in reflection I met around 76-78. he sold these through tom lee or long and mcquaid I wad told by the seller. i'll ask about shelley sax.

    this is a bit odd as it has no adjustable truss rod, and there are small wobbles on the neck. could be fixed during a refrett, plane the finger board under tension, but it's not too bad as is, better than a lot of 12s I have played, but just not super low action. the tone is incredible though, a real deep booming canon with great mid range as well as bass and high end(12s pretty much all have great high end). so i'll suffer I have another 12 ny haruo, a laminate model, with super low action for lazy days.

    but thanks i'll ask a few luthiers I know out there about shelley sax.

    the rosewood back and sides is almost an exact mctch for a larrivee I saw out there, which made me think it was from the same log, hence he got the wood from larrivee. but that's a guess. great indian rosewood.. some indian is so so, this is really punchy and full sounding.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: sax guitar

    Quote Originally Posted by ollaimh View Post
    well that's interesting. never heard of shelley sax. I was told the maker was a guy named lee, down I white rock who in reflection I met around 76-78. he sold these through tom lee or long and mcquaid I wad told by the seller. i'll ask about shelley sax.

    this is a bit odd as it has no adjustable truss rod, and there are small wobbles on the neck. could be fixed during a refrett, plane the finger board under tension, but it's not too bad as is, better than a lot of 12s I have played, but just not super low action.
    Shelley (Lee) Sax built guitars in my friend John Stewart's wood working shop just across the street here in Crescent Beach, BC in the early seventies. Lee went back to Connecticut where he became a very successful stockbroker.
    The guitars I've seen were somewhat unformed, one lacking a bridge plate!

    They would have likely sold through Bill Lewis' music store or Attilla Balogh's Iron Music store on Granville Street.

    His wood didn't come from Larrivee (who didn't move from Toronto to Victoria until around the time Sax went back east) but rather from Bill Lewis' nascent Luthier Supply business, the one he sold to Todd Taggart who moved it to Healdsburg, California and renamed "Luthiers Lercantile International." Still a great place for wood!

    I was lucky enough to acquire Shelley's wood stash including a ton of old Brazilian back in the nineties and hope to someday make a few guitars from it.

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