Vito VSP Tenor

[leonardA]

I have a Vito VSP tenor. My Seller on ebay told me that it was made by Yanagisawa. Does anyone know if this is true? It has a logo that looks like a music lyre, and above the serial number it says "Japan." It is a nice playing sax. I do notice that Yanagisawa and Vito are both owned by Lablanc, or at least both brands are shown on the Leblanc site. The Leblanc history states that in 1981 or so they became the exclusive U.S. distributor for Yani, so there is obviously a connection. Would appreciate any info that anyone has.

Leonard

[saxmanglen]

The lyre type logo your seeing IS the Yanagisawa logo. The Vito's with that logo were made by Yanagisawa. I have 3 Yanagisawa horns. They're great!

[Hurling Frootmig]

You should be able to match it up with the Yani serial numbers found at www.saxgourmet.com to determine what year it was made.

Vito VSP's were in fact Yanagisawa's (they still make the Vito Bari today). They also were stenciled Whitehall and Dorado in the 60's and 70's.

[super20dan]

congrats -you have a killer horn. i have been playing proffessionally for 35 years and these horns are as good as any ever made. a true yani .

[leonardA]

Thanks to all of you for responding. Any suggestions as to a mouthpiece that would work especially well with it. I like a jazzy sound, I guess you would call it "bright."

[Hurling Frootmig]

I use a Runyon Custom with the spoiler in it for a bright tenor sound but I play on a vintage Kohlert. The best thing for you to do is to find a music store where you can sit down a play as many mouthpieces as possible.

[Goin4DaTone]

I bought a VITO VSP bari for my son, he switched to Bari this year. For his adition required piece he had to play 'things ain't hat they used to in the starting at low D.
He smoked!, This horn is great, and the low register is definately the horns strength. The Jazz Band director siad he never heard him play bari before, that he was exceptional. I told the band director that I hadn't heard hom play bari up until 2 weeks before the audition, since just got the horn for him (and for me too, gonna break it out here soon, and have a go)
It really barks in the low register.
Now, if I can just convince him to use the school bari for marching band.....

[JohnSBA]

I owned and played a Vito VSP tenor for 6 years before finally trading it in for a SBA. I believe that this horn (at least mine) was a Yanagasawa Model 880 with the underslung octave key. I purchased mine with a soft case that was stanped Leblanc (but probably reunion blues) and the horn stood up to all sorts of use.

Very good horn for the money!

Some other yani's out there include whitehall and some martin's (big into the stencil market)