Early Jupiters.....Any opinions?

[GT]

I know very little about Jupiters other than what I have read by Jason Dumars and others here. I'm assuming that, like everything else, Jupiters improved with age. My question is whether or not the early Jupiters were good players. I have a line on one that was likely made in the '80's. I don't know when Jupiter started production. I'm guessing it's probably a student horn as it was purchased for a high school student (I have not played it yet). I'm trying to decide if I should drive 6 hours to take a look at this sax. It can probably be had fairly cheaply.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

[Stencilman]

I tried a some Jupiters (alto and tenor) in a local shop about 8 years ago and found them to be a bit awkward, out of tune and gernally not well set up. I've tried them recently and found them to play on-par with the Yamaha intermediate horns. If I were buying a new horn, I'd go with the Yamahas since there isn't too much of a price difference.

I couldn't say if the older Jupters were inferior based on just two horns or if/when Jupiter started producing better horns. I've seen 2 year old intermediate-level Jupiter altos that looked like they were in great shape go for as little as $250 on Ebay.

[GT]

Duh!!....I just realized what I said about Jason. I've been reading his info on Jinyins not Jupiters.
:oops:
GT

[Bloo Dog]

The Jupiters have improved with time, for sure. I own and play four of them (1 tenor, one soprano and two altos). I advise against buying a Jupiter which is older than four or five years old.

If you were thinking of buying a 23 year-old Selmer or some other revered brand, buying vintage would make sense, but Jupiters merely devalue with time. The cost of overhauling a 20 year old Jupiter would cost more than the horn is worth.

Why not spend $250.00-$300.00 on a near-pristine instrument on ebay? There are literally truckloads of them available.

In short, Jupiters are great players but they'll never be collector's items.

If you're interested in buying a reasonably-priced Jupiter alto email me at Bukowski1234@yahoo.com. I can tell you what to watch out for. I might even have a later model JAS 767 for sale.

[GT]

Thanks, Bloodog. I'm pretty much of the same opinions that you posted, I just didn't have any basis in fact. My son's college roomate has this sax for sale that I thought I might pick up for $100.00 or so, but that's not the horn I want to end up with. I had to sell my Super Balanced Action Tenor a couple of years ago and I'm starting to get the "shakes" for something similar (not that I consider an old Jupiter to be similar). I think I'm going to try to save my pennies for a pre-Selmer Buescher (some day!).

Thanks again for your info and your offer.

George

[JohnZ]

GT, I had an early Jupiter 767 alto for a short while. If you read my comments about an Alpine under "hard to find saxophones", the Jupiter seemed to be the opposite of the Alpine. Soft easy to bend keywork, but had a really nice tone. It could serve as an adult amateur at home sax. I bought it cheap, & sold it cheap, so it didn't hurt to try it. When I ended up needing a good (reliable) alto for community band (I'm not a pro) I went with a Yamaha YAS-62 which were heavily discounted when the new models came out, & haven't looked back since.

[GT]

I did read your "Alpine" post JohnZ, and thank you for your information. This horn kind of found me and I would probably give the guy $100.00 for it, but I don't want to insult him (or his parents!). I already have an old Noblet (Paris) alto which isn't bad for an intermediate horn. So I'm just gonna hang out and look real hard for what I really want.

Thanks again,
George

[colibri]

My bar horn is a Jupiter alto.
It has a nice alto-ish kind of sound overall, but it's not responsive at all and certain notes can sound too muffled. The lay out of the keys are quite uncomfortable. Many of them aren't set up properly, as with Keilwerth and Selmer. I brought it to my tech and had him even out the spring tension, changed a couple of pads and fixed some (many) leaks. It's built like a tank and can withstand many spilled beer. Great for marching band, or like JohnZ said, adult amateurs at-home sax.

[GT]

Thanks, colibri. What's the s/n of your horn. The one I am speaking about is 715XXX. Does this make it an '88? That's what I got from music trader.com, but there seems to be some uncertainty about that. Also, it's a SAS 767.

Regards,
George

[JohnZ]

It's odd that colibri would describe his old Jupiter as being built like a tank. The one I had was quite the opposite. I attributed the decent tone to the thinness of the metal. The keywork just wouldn't stay set. It played fine after a tech checkup, but 20-30 hrs later the keys were getting sluggish & out of alignment. Perhaps it had seen better days. I don't recall the S/N. Keep in mind we're talking about an older model that had been around the block a few times before I got it. Referring back to the first post....why don't you play it & see what you think of it?

[colibri]

My Jupiter's serial # is 406650. I don't know much about Jupiter serial numbers, but I got mine second-hand around 6 years ago.

Perhaps the older Jupiters have harder metal? It needed repair only twice in 6 years, but as I said it's a bar horn so I don't play it everyday. It's a lot heavier than the Yamaha student models. Since it has the weight of a pro horn, I suspect that's the reason I find them sounding nice and dark.

I haven't played any new Jupiters so I can't comment on that. My tech, however, liked their Artist (silver) alto more than the Selmer series II's. The quality may have gone up or down in recents years. Try before you buy.

[GT]

Thanks for all of the input, guys. And you are absolutely right, I would like very much to try it out. I was just interested in opinions to see if I should make the 6 hour drive or not. Anyway, I would still get to see my son so that would make it worth it!

Regards,
George

[MPL]

I used a 787 tenor for college marching band way back in 1986. A buddy and I rented them and used them for an entire football season. Neither of us had any problems with those horns, and we used them in all kinds of weather from bright sunshine to 20-degree cold to miserably rainy.

Other than some general stuffiness around the middle D, we liked them a lot.

[GT]

Hi Guys,

Just an update on the Jupiter. My son brought it home with him Easter weekend and I gave it a whirl. It was desperately in need of attention from a good tech as it was leaking pretty badly. I was actually surprised at how sturdy it appeared and how comfortable it felt. I couldnt' get a lot out of it in it's current state but it was good and straight. As it turns out, the guy only wanted $50.00 for so I bought it. After I get it back from my tech, I'll let you know how it plays.

Thanks again for all of the input.

George

[jr!]

Funny, I have that on my old alto as well & to a lesser degree on my Artist tenor...




Other than some general stuffiness around the middle D, we liked them a lot.

[Kareeser]

Yup, stuffiness on D, but I've lived with that. If it's an eigth note, I just palm it w/o the octave key.

On it being built like a tank.. it is... it survived a fall from two feet with no ill effects. No keys removed, no sound differences, etc.

However, that's for an old model Jupiter... whose age I am unsure of. Newer ones, I can't say...