Author: MartyMagnini
Date: 2017-07-18 04:06
I play lots of tenor these days. To my surprise, many of the Taiwanese instruments are of very good quality now - much more so than 5 or 10 years ago.
I have played and owned many tenors in my day, including a Mark VII, a King Super 20, and a Yamaha pro horn. I'm telling you, these new batch of instruments are really, really nice - especially for the money.
Specific brands that get good reviews from peers (and myself) are:
Eastman - specifically the 52nd street horns - very nice for the price - built like tanks, great intonation response, etc.
Sax Dakota (what I ended up with). Again - this surprised me - the quality, intonation, build, was all impressive. It's as nice a tenor as I've ever played (I chose the raw bronze model)
P. Muriat - I don't have personal experience with these horns, but they get very good reviews from people I trust.
Viking. A very nice line of instruments. I bought one of their tenors for my son - I don't like it quite as much as my Sax Dakota, but I wouldn't hesitate to play it on a professional gig.
Sometimes, people can be resistant to change, and I'm sure to many I'm speaking sacrilege. Don't take my word for it - try a Yamaha, Yanigasawa, etc., then try an Eastman or a Sax Dakota and see if you don't think they stack up quite well. They tend to run about half of the price of the traditional top-of-the-line horns. I'm not a huge fan of the older stuff - some of them have really nice sounds, but almost all of them really have to be babied to be played in tune - not so with these new horns (and to be fair, not so with the Yamahas, Yanigasawas, etc.). I LOVED my King Super 20, but it was harder to play in tune than my Sax Dakota is. Just my 2 cents - try some!
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The Clarinet BBoard
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