Stephanhouser

[hotpace]

Hi there,

does anybody have any experience with Stephanhouser Alto saxophones? Or has anybody actually played a Stephanhouser horn? Especially of interest is the top of the line alto model with solid silver neck and bell.

Would be grateful for any reply.

[DaveKessler]

Hi there,

does anybody have any experience with Stephanhouser Alto saxophones? Or has anybody actually played a Stephanhouser horn? Especially of interest is the top of the line alto model with solid silver neck and bell.

Would be grateful for any reply.

hotpace,

I had one of my sax guys play it at the show and he said that it was the Best horn at the show... but it is really hard to know for sure when playing at the NAMM show because of all the noise.

I have one of them coming in by mid next week. We are going to evaluate it up against other comparably priced horns.

I plan on posting our findings after the test.

[DaveKessler]

hotpace,

Just to follow up, I posted our review of the top end Stephanhouser in the "Misc Sax Discussion" thread.

Overall, Massive sound, intonation issues. Not worth the money.

[Lomar Manx]

I played one at NAMM. I agree that NAMM is one of the worst enviroments for evaluating an instrument, so I can say that it looked good, and felt responsive. The horns are being made in Taiwan by (I think) Kinstar, and the owner of the company whose name escapes me worked for Antigua and went out on his own. They loudly tout the pivot screw mechanism but I fail to see any advantage anmd would be concerned that if you ever lost one most repair shops would not have a replacement and the one piece bow. I honestly couldn't tell any difference in the lower end that could be attributed to the bow. It looks like they have done a lot of advertising but actually have very very few dealers, so maybe that tells us something.

[akira329]

I play one now. I've playing for about a year now. It seems fine to me.
really bright, I have no trouble staying in tune. I recommend you try before buy. I bought mine on ebay and struggled to find anyone who played it. I got good comments on it but I thought they were a little bias. but I bought it anyway because it was in my price range and I was desparete for a new horn.
I played on an bundy II for about 13yrs.
I gave it to my brother. now when I go to his house to play it I love the sound of it more than I do the stephanhouser.

[anthonyT]

In my opinion I really like the stephanhousers because I tried one at the CMEA convention (california music educators association). It was not a very loud enviroment and this sax just helped me improve my sound a lot. But then everyone has a type of sax that they like so just try some out, but you already have your bundy sax so I guess you dont need to try any out.

[Sigmund451]

Dave (Junkdude) is going to be carrying these. A few years ago there was some talk about their intonation. It will be interesting to see if they made improvements.

[Grumps]

So as not to mislead folks, it should be pointed out that at the time of his post, I believe "Lomar" had his own horns to sell in direct competition with Stephanhouser; which would make him somewhat biased in his evaluation.

[rhumbaphone]

I own and play the curved soprano and it's been great to me so far. i've had it for 9 months and it remains sturdy and in tune, though not responsive to just any mouth piece. a selmer c* is useless on it and the factory piece was really cheap and edgy. it responds great with a caravan for classical and otto link 5* for jazz. i love it both for the sound and the action. everything seems to lay just right. sorry, i have no first hand experience with the alto, but i hear good things from friends.

[crazydaisydoo]

I own and play the curved soprano and it's been great to me so far. i've had it for 9 months and it remains sturdy and in tune, though not responsive to just any mouth piece. a selmer c* is useless on it and the factory piece was really cheap and edgy. it responds great with a caravan for classical and otto link 5* for jazz. i love it both for the sound and the action. everything seems to lay just right. sorry, i have no first hand experience with the alto, but i hear good things from friends.

Thanks rhumbaphone, the OP has been waiting nearly 6 years for that! BTW I tried one 2 years ago, and though it was OK, not great but OK. I am pleased you like yours.

[Drumroll]

How does intonation check out with a meter top to bottom and altisimo on the curved soprano? Can this guy stack up with a Yani or R&C curved soprano with a good mouthpiece?

[Debukochi]

I purchased a new, straight Stephanhouser soprano in January of 2009. I want to be fair in my appraisal of the horn, so I’ll try to stick to objective statements and leave the conclusions to the readers.

I have 3 mouthpieces that I use with the horn—a Meyer, a Beechler, and a Morgan “Vintage”. I have never been able to push any of the mouthpieces in far enough to tune to A440 Hz. The closest is the Morgan at A439. The farthest is the Meyer at A435.

I’ve since purchased a Yanagisawa 991 and do not have any of these problems. (No, I’m not rich and it really hurt my fiscal planning to have to buy it—especially after just buying the Stephanhouser).

I had planned to take it to my local repair man, try to fix the tuning (trim the neck?), then donate it to a school music program, but the finish on the keys is quickly deteriorating. There appears to be a clear lacquer finish on the keys which is coming off in little chunks at the frequent contact areas. (The Stephanhouser horns have no pearl buttons on the keys). The horn is only 4 months old!