What sax brand would you recommend ?

Question

I am looking to buy a tenor sax. what brand would you recommend for a student going on to their 4th year of playing ?

Answer 1

Selmer or Yamaha are both great brands!  If you can find a used vintage Super Action 80 Series or a Mark VI (both Selmer) for cheap, they are usually GREAT horns.  Yamaha has some fantastic models too, but I think their newer horns are better- they worked out all the kinks, so to speak.

Also, check out Yanagisawa- they're an off-chute of Yamaha, and they make some terrific sounding horns too!  

Another company to check out is Cannonball... they are a fairly new company based out of Utah, but the quality of materials and craftmanship are superb, and they are priced at about half of what Selmer or Yamaha sells their horns for.  I have a friend that's a GREAT sax player, and I have never heard anything sexier than his Cannonball tenor.

Here are some links for you:

http://www.cannonballmusic.com/

http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/Cata...

Selmer is having website trouble, so I can't post a link, but you can try to check 'em out at selmer.com

Hope this helped! :)

Answer 2

Yamaha, no doubt about it, it is the best. If you had only been playing for a little while, you could get away with Jupiter, a slightly cheaper alternative, but not as good quality. But seeing as you have been playing for 4 years, you definatley need a good quality one...Yamaha all the way!

Answer 3

if money is no object, then look into yanagasawa instruments,...

also you might want to try LA SAX, they build pro horns in los angeles,

for best bang for your buck (budget conscious) look at yamaha pro model horns