Magnetones

Wood & Winds is proud to present Magnetones (Patent Pending).

Imagine being able to change the core of your saxophones sound on a whim - without an overhaul every time you want to make a change. Magnetones opens new versatility in the area of saxophone tone control.

Magnetones is the revolutionary modular resonator system. After 4 years of development, Mike Borkovic of Wood & Winds presents a breakthrough in tone customization. With the Magnetones upgrade, you can easily experiment with shape, size, and material to take control of the core of your tone and build your sound!

Magnetones also gives you the freedom to hear it for yourself. So far, players have been relying on other players, techs, and manufacturers to recommend resonators for them - but not everyone has the same tone concept. During an overhaul you only get one shot at your choice, and anything experimental feels like a risk, but for all the fine details we explore in necks, mouthpieces, reeds, ligatures, and more - maybe it's time we take a real shot at refining the bore of our instrument and really see what resonators do?

Now within two minutes you can completely change your setup -

  • Size: Standard, oversized, undersized
  • Material: plastic, metal
  • Shape: Domed, Flat, Seamless, Riveted, Noyek/Maestro
  • Plating: None, copper, silver, gold
  • Custom: 3D printed resos, non-traditional shapes, resonators for "prepared saxophone" contemporary compositions
  • All: And any combination of the above

Besides just experimenting with your sound, you can cater your setup to the gig the way you do with a mouthpiece and neck. eg. Standard plastic for your legit setup, oversized metal resos for pop/jazz, and even prepared resonators for contemporary players.

And besides all of this great stuff - all of these resonators are reusable! Trade with a friend and try their resonator setup to see if they are onto something that will work for you.

For Players

Resonators with pre-installed magnets. For players who already have Magnetones installed on their instrument.

Shop Magnetic Resonators

For Techs

This is the link to the fixed magnet behind the pad, ring magnets, and magnetic resonators, as well as some other tools.

Shop Tech Supplies

Info for Techs

Even if a customer does not want Magnetones for their own instrument, it is worthwhile to have a set installed on a demo horn so that customers can audition resonators on a "standard" saxophone that they might be familiar with (eg. Yamaha 62) to understand the influence each resonator has on the saxophone first hand.

You may have a few questions about this system:

1. How will this interact with my Magnetic Dent Removal System?

  • There are no issues when the MDRS is brought near an installed set of Magnetones. Despite it's size, the MDRS does not get close enough to these magnets to disturb their attraction to each other

2. Does dent removal of any kind interfere with the Magnetones?

  • When the Magnetones are installed, dent tools also cannot overpower the magnetic attraction between the resonator and backing magnet.

3. Do magnets lose their effectiveness?

  • There are two conditions where the magnets lose power:
  • the first is that the strength naturally degrades over time, but this occurs at a rate of around 1% loss of strength every ten years.
  • the second is when it is exposed to high heat. The magnetic backing which will see the most heat during pad seating is a high-temperature magnet meant to resist this heat. The heat required to damage the magnet would be around lacquer-burning temperatures. So the Magnetones will be safe in standard repadding conditions.

4. Do I need to buy special pads, resonators, or tools?

  • No! There is only one tool that is recommended (MusicMedic's Buescher hole punch system), but it can be done with standard punches if you have a good technique for centering the punch on your pad. I do have a couple of tools that might make working with these more convenient, but they are not required for this. Resonators will be available in a pre-magnetized format for your convenience, but I also make the magnetic rings available for purchase so you do not need yet another style of resonator in stock if you would rather do the installation on your own.
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