Sawats are wooden

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

s created by designer Sawat (Sawad) Dejprakune in

Chiang Rai Chiang Rai ( th, เชียงราย, ; nod, , เจียงฮาย, ) is the northernmost major city in Thailand, with a population of about 200,000 people. It is located in Mueang Chiang Rai District, Chiang Rai Province. Chiang Rai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. They are available in

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

, alto, and soprano versions. They are the only true wooden saxophone (as opposed to clarinet) in production as of 2012. They are also called Sawad saxophone, depending on the romanization of the Thai name. Dejpakune began as a music teacher frustrated with the high cost of traditional brass saxophones, which essentially put them out of the reach of ordinary Thai students. He decided to create a more affordable saxophone using local materials, eventually choosing wood. As of December 2008, he operated an instrument shop in Chiang Rai. {{cite news, last=Anon., title=Chiang Rai: Home of the Wooden Saxophone, url=http://bostonglobe.longjaunt.com/photos/2008/07/19/chiangrai/, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202032537/http://bostonglobe.longjaunt.com/photos/2008/07/19/chiangrai/, url-status=dead, archivedate=2 December 2008, accessdate=30 November 2018, newspaper=The Boston Globe, date=19 Jul 2008 Despite its innovative design and unique tone, the instrument remains largely unknown outside of Thailand.

References

Saxophones Thai musical instruments