Play the saw in six weeks
Any old saw?
The sound of the saw is so surprising, many people wonder if I'm really playing a saw or whether the sound is fake. More than once, people have assumed the sound is generated electronically. One imaginative audience member accused me of hiding some circuitry down my tights. Saw players have had to contend with listeners' incredulity for centuries. According to legend, a saw player who graced the nineteenth-century music halls used to perform with a bun in his mouth to prove he wasn't whistling.
I do play on a real saw and often use one that's come straight from the DIY store. In fact, one saw I bought from a Co-Op in Salford, around twenty years ago, plays beautifully. This saw is around 28-inches long, Unfortunately, it's rather tricky to find saws as long as this in the DIY stores today.
A few years ago, I bought the 'Sandvik Stradivarius' from a music shop in Holland (it cost around 80 quid). I was especially tempted by its unusually bendy, long body. Sandvik make short runs of this extra-large saw for players who need something longer than the stunted, 22-inches available in hardware stores today. Although it's larger and bendier than other saws you can buy today, it is essentially an ordinary, useable saw. It took a while to build up the strength to play the Sandvik for long sessions. But now I'm used to it, I prefer it to my original cheapies (although I do get them out now and then).
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