My girlfriend has made a few comments over the last several months about how she misses having an alto sax which she used to play in high-school and for a few years afterwards. Being the somewhat observant boyfriend that I am, I realized this may make for a nice Christmas present. So I went looking on Craigslist for used alto saxophones and there are quite a lot of them available from around $300.00 to $700.00. My problem is, I don’t know what a quality brand name for a sax would be nor an appropriate price.
So sax playing dopers… what should I look for (brand, condition, etc.) and look out for (garbage brands, common damage, etc.)?
We initially rented a Selmer from the local music shop. It was a student sax that most of the manufacturers sell. It was ok and good enough for her. We were paying $40 per month for it so after a year we figured that she actually liked playing and decided to look for a one to buy…
We ended up buying a Yamaha YAS23 which is a good quality student sax. New they are about $1300-$1600 but they have been making them for years. We found on on eBay for under $500 - interrogated the seller who refurbished saxophones. I was a little reluctant but when we got it it was perfect. It was about 10 years old and had some blemishes but he had brought the thing ‘up to spec’ and all the moving parts were working well. Her music teached made a few small adjustments and it was fine.
Anyway, stay away from any new sax under $700. There are now many cheaply made horns being sold on eBay. From the reviews I have read, the intonation on them is awful - you get what you pay for.
Stick to a good used Selmer or Yamaha - $500 is good price point for a 23, and pays for itself in a year compared to renting… Some of these are now made in Taiwan but they are still decent horns.
BTW, this was 2 years ago now and the 23 is still working perfectly.
If you’re not looking for new, consider brand-shopping and get something on the low end of the asking prices. Because then you should:
Take it to a music store and have them replace the pads and give the mechanics a tune up. A sax can look great and the action can feel great, but if it’s bent even a little bit it simply will not play. Pads dry out over time (in spite of getting soggy with use…bleah!) so a fresh set will be nice anyhow. Plus it won’t smell like someone else’s spit. Ohe yeah, splurge and get her a new mouthpiece and some #2 reeds.
I played the alto sax in junior high, having been liberated from my long-hated piano lessons, and had a blast with it. The sax is a cool instrument with which you can play a lot of different kinds of music. Don’t remember the manufacturer of mine, but I think I’d recognize it if I saw it (and I don’t see it on that particular website list; maybe it was an obscure company).
Hope your girlfriend has as much fun with the sax as I did!
Are you saying if it is bent at all it will not play or it will not play well? Besides asking the seller to play it for me, how can I tell if this is the case? Any idea what a tune up as you suggest would run at a music shop?
Somewhere between “Not well” and “Not at all” if it’s bent. If you can get someone to play it for you, have them go through as much if the horn’s range as they can. A good high note indicator is high C (keyed with the left middle finger and left thumb only), a good low note indicator is low D (left middle 3 fingers, right middle three fingers, no left thumb. The low D (IIRC) closes all the holes. If that note is hard to reach then the pads aren’t covering completely. That might be because the horn is bent or because the pads are dried out. Generally, if it plays all the notes between those two, then it’s in reasonably good shape. I’d still repad for aesthetic reasons. It’s been 20+ years since I’ve been in the business, so I can’t comment on the cost of a tune up. Probably a couple hundred $.
I’ll support what others have said. I have a Yamaha and love it. I’d lean towards a used one, but plan on replacing the pads - if someone is selling it, chances are they haven’t used it for years, and the pads will have dried out.
Also - set aside some money on a new and good quality mouthpiece. It will be worth the extra money. However, you probably won’t want to buy the mouthpiece for her - she should really try out a couple and pick the one that works for her. A mouthpiece is a very personal purchase.
Just for the record, it’s not spit. It’s condensation from breath. One does not spit into a saxophone (or even a brass instrument). However, if the instrument is not swabbed after use the condensation will tend to mildew which can get quite nasty.
I’ll second this. I don’t play sax, but I do play flute, which is another instrument with delicate and complicated mechanical workings, and pads that can cause problems. If I was looking at a used flute, I’d get a quote for the above and factor in that cost to the bottom line. No idea just what that would be for a sax, though based on what I’ve been quoted for a flute in the past, Inigo’s guess of $200 would seem to be in the ballpark.
Just a suggestion … expand your search to include any local music stores that deal in used instruments, especially if they deal in used band instruments. A local high school with a band program can be a great resource for learning which stores to go to for such things. Sometimes, you can find a used instrument that wasn’t used very much, so it doesn’t cost nearly as much as a brand-new instrument; but it plays like one, and has few, if any, problems. Also, when it came in, the instrument probably went through what Inigo described above, so the cost of that should be included in the price; and the store may even extend some sort of limited warranty to the used instruments it sells. No idea what a used sax might cost at a music store, but it can’t hurt to phone around and ask.
I have a saxophone that was given to me, but I think it is either bent or needs new pads. However, my skilled saxophonist friendcan still get it to play all the notes. I just can’t. (But I can on his.)
I played for about 15 years, through middle and high schools, then college, and got to be really darn good at it (without blowing my own horn!). My dad bought me a ‘Vito LeBlanc’ sax, brand new, and although it was pricey, it was one heck of an instrument. Unfortunately, late in my career, I felt it would be good to have it refinished and re-padded, and the sound was just destroyed. I couldn’t identify what exactly had gone wrong, but it wasn’t the same.
To get back to it, though, that Vito was really sweet, and I’d recommend one to anybody. We got it because my teacher had told my dad to get that brand and no other.
I can also say that I did over my career borrow Selmers and Yamahas, and neither one came close.
Thanks everyone, I have found a local music shop that sells (and seems to specialize in) used saxophones, including many of the brands listed here. Their online site has quite a lot listed in a wide price range so I’m going to go into the shop and talk with them directly.
Another great source of info - if you search; it’s very big - is Sax On The Web Forum. I contribute here myself, mostly about vintage jazz and vintage horns.
