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My experience with Saxophone.com saxophones

10K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Bloo Dog 
#1 ·
My adventures with the Saxophone.com saxophones

Hello and thank you for reading my post. My name is Phineas Henshaw, and I am known mostly for playing guitar and flute. The last few months, I have been giving saxophone lessons. Since I use to play saxophone in highschool, I have been pretty successful doing this. Anyway, I was looking at getting a saxophone for myself, and wondered upon a used Winston 350L Soprano. The reason this caught my attention was due to the low price for it. Of course I played a tenor in highschool not a soprano.Man did I get myself in deep. After spending some time and money, I got the right mouthpiece/reed combination(Selmer S80 C) and I was good to go. The mouth piece that came with it was a Sempfu mouthpiece with a wide gap. To make the story short, I let my Nephew play on it, and he screamed! So I gave it to him. The horn is in perfect playing condition. After 2 weeks, I was without a horn again.

I looked around the web, and stumbled upon Saxophone.com . Being a Semi-Pro Guitar and Flute player, I have had a lot of experience with Asian made guitars and flutes. Most of my Flutes and Guitars are made in Japan, China, or Taiwan. From my experience, either you are going to get an extremely good deal, or you are going to get playable junk. I initially had this feeling when I stumbled across this site. Well, I am a sucker for calling people on the phone, so I decided to give Sax.com a call.
To my shock, Garrett himself answered the phone. After a pleasant conversation, we talked about trying one of his instruments. I was not ready to fork out $500 dollars right away, so I went with the rental plan. I figured it would be a win win situation. The horn came in 2 days! Here is what happened.

Saxophone.com Model SS-100BG Black Nickel Soprano w/Gold Keys(Intermediate Model)
The first thing I noticed was that it did not have the oily smell that is very common with cheap Chinese horns. It came with a canvas case. The first thing I did was inspect it for flaws. The there was a rough spot on the finish near the bell, and some finish flaws keys themselves, but overall nothing unusual that have have not seen even on higher end horns. The action is very smooth and sturdy. The only thing that was weird was the G# key! When it arrived it did not work. This was due to one of the springs falling out. It was not a big deal. I replaced the spring, but found the G# key light, and mushy. With some minor adjustment, I got it how I wanted it. I tried to play it with the stock mouthpiece but it was not very good for me. This gave me the perfect excuse to go shopping, and let a couple of my Saxophone snob friends check it out. Everyone I let see it or play on it made comments about the construction method, but was impressed with how it played for the price! I bought an Vandoren V16, and some Rico Jazz Selects 3 Mediums as suggested by Mark at Saxquest, and I was good to go. After playing around on other sopranos, I found this saxophone is very similar to the Selmer La Voix series soprano. The difference in playability is very nominal, and not necessarily better. For that matter, there were very few sopranos I could find that would play that much better. Not to justify that difference in cost. It really made me wonder how the Pro model plays. As I become a better soprano player, I may pass this horn along to someone, and buy the pro model! Needless to say, I bought it. I then decide to check out the tenor.

Saxophone.com Model TS-642U Vintage Finish Tenor(Pro Model)
After another pleasant conversation with Garrett, he suggested I go with the pro-model Tenor. He says this is one of the best horns he sell. He especially suggested the un-lacquered model. I was in the process of traveling to Cleveland from St. Louis. So knowing that I was going to check this horn out, I stopped by Woodwind and Brasswind in Southbend In to check out some mouthpieces. I wound up getting the Ottolink 7 hard rubber. I like this piece so much, I bought a 7* for my Soprano! I ordered the horn for rental that Friday, it arrived Monday! The first thing I noticed was the case! The case resembles that old Tourister luggage back in the day. It has briefcase style latches with keys. It even included lettering that you could stick on it to display your name. I did not decide to look for flaws because this horn is bare. You can literally see where things are soldered together. The construction of this horn is on par with other higher end saxophones I have been exposed to. The action is very smooth, and tight. Just for kicks, I tried it with the stock mouthpiece. This turned out to be a Sempfu the same brand that came with the used soprano I was telling you about earlier. The stock mouthpiece was pretty decent. I definitely could have lived with it. This horn is very free blowing just like I have experienced on other high end horns. As I normally do, I let a couple of saxophone snobs check it out. The pro players that checked this horn out were very impressed. The only complaint they had was they did not like Saxophone.com as a name for a saxophone brand. One of my friends said the only reason he would not pay $3000 to $4000 dollars for it was due to it's resale value at that level. Since the horn only cost around $1100, he would not have to worry about that. This horn made me feel like I should have gotten the pro version of the soprano!

Conclusion
First off, I will admit I am not a pro or expert saxophonist. My experience with the saxophone is strictly for education, fun, and the occasional pop/blues gig(maybe). I like new things. These Saxophone.com horns just made me excited about playing sax again. Now I can have the quality of horns I always wanted, but kept putting off because of the price. What really blows my mind is Garrett can even have his horns customized! This is insane!

Am I saying trade in your $4000 Selmer for one of these? No. However, in a financial pinch, a person can get themselves a good quality professional level instrument that will carry them for as long as they want to play. The likely hood that a serious player is going to have more than one instrument is very high. These instruments would be good for anyone's collection. This is especially true for players who play in bars/clubs. As a flute player, I keep my $3000 Miyazawa at home, and take my $1000 Pearl 665 or my $200 dollar Yamaha 225s to the bar/club.

The rental option is nice also. It is a good way to get a nice horn, while you are saving up you money to buy it.

Thanks to Garrett and crew for coming up with such a great products and services.

Phineas Henshaw
Guitar/Flute/Engineer/Sax?
k0kma<at>yahoo<dot>com
 
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#2 ·
just wondering, why didnt you get a used instrument?
usually they have more bang for the buck, ive seen yamaha 23's and 52's go for under that price.
 
#3 ·
I am not familiar with the YTS52, but I have played on a YTS23, and a YTS475. There is just no comparison! All I would get is a name brand student model horn. That is just like putting up a Pearl Quantz 665, or a Jupiter 711 up against a used Yamaha 381. Pearl, and the Jupiter are both Taiwan horns, but they smoke the Yamaha 300, and 400 series flutes. Now, if you go up to a Yamaha 500 series flute for a comparison, that would be more equal. However, the sale price is almost twice as much as the Pearl and the Jupiter. I know, because I use to own a Yamaha 514. This is my mind set with these Sax.com horns. As it seems, the local sax snobs felt the same way. I would have, and did consider buying used, but after road test them, they just turned out to be keepers.
 
#4 ·
Hey, if you tried them out ahead of time and liked them enough to buy them, then no further explanation is necessary. The YTS-52 is not a student instrument by any stretch of the imagination, and they can sometimes be found used under $1k. But if you're not in a position to wait around for such a deal to fall into your lap, you gotta do what you gotta do.
 
#5 ·
<<The first thing I noticed was that it did not have the oily smell that is very common with cheap Chinese horns.>>

This is a first. Oily smells associated with "Cheap Chinese Saxophones." On this board, the expression is redundant. Has anyone on this board played a Chinese saxophone that was NOT a "cheap" Chinese saxophone with a multitude of supposed defects which only an obsessive anal-retentive type would perceive?

I've never noticed an oily smell on ANY new, unplayed saxophone, regardless of its origin. Which horns are you referring to? I have a severe allergy to petroleum oil and oily smells. I've got a baritone and a sopranino on its way to me from Hubei. I don't wanna die. I'd appreciate it if you could warn me in case mine are the lethal type of saxophones. Which brands did you try?

Thanks in advance.
 
#7 ·
Well, about 4 years ago, I had some money to burn, so I start ordering cheap ebay horns off the internet. Venus, Selmen, Jinyin, Barrington, Monique, Cecilio, etc... For some reason they all had this oily/chemical smell. Buying a new case gets rid of most of the smell. I have been told by some the the smell is Formaldehyde, but this is something I cannot confirm this.
 
#8 ·
Oh, THAT smell. Yeah, that comes from the glue used in the manufacture of the case. Some cases use a different glue or they air the case before shipping it to the wholesaler/manufacturer. Hard camera cases from Europe suffered from that problem years ago. The case to my MkVI Paris had a funky smell to it.

Unless it's a sweet smell, it isn't formaldehyde or formalin.

You're unlikely to get a petroleum smell from a new saxophone if you take a good whiff from the bell. The body is treated with a degreaser before it's lacquered. Jason D may know more about that. Any petroleum smell may come from sloppy lubrication of the key work.
 
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