Vibratosax is the product name of saxophones made from plastic, designed and built by the Thai company Vibrato.
A global patent[1] makes Vibrato Co., Ltd. the sole manufacturer of vibratosaxes, whose parts are mainly created from injection-molded plastic.
The saxophone had very good musical properties, amongst others— It has been played by some of the biggest jazz musicians, such as Charlie Parker[2] and Ornette Coleman.
Because of the improvements made in plastic quality and manufacturing via thermoplastic injection molding over the past 50 years, the Bangkok-living entrepreneur and passionate saxophonist Piyapat Thanyakij decided in 2009 to revive the concept of a plastic-made saxophone, with its advantages over traditional metal-made saxophones – i.e. low weight, robustness (when using modern plastics), and a consistent and precise reproduction of the body parts – and named the new instrument series Vibratosax.
[8] The saxophones are also very immune to mechanical damages and corrosion, which has been impressively demonstrated through a video, in which the Hawaiian saxophonist Reggie Padilla is playing a Vibratosax A1S while surfing, on, in and "below" the water.
The main body tube is divided in six sections lengthwise, the bow, bell and neck consist of two mirrored halves each.
[11] The only bigger metal part is a brass tube at the end of the neck, which accepts the mouth piece with a rubberized foam coating instead of traditional cork.
On January 12, 2011, saxophone repairman Matt Stohrer released a YouTube video where he analyzed a pre-production unit of the Vibratosax from a repair perspective.