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Re: Tenor Saxophone recommendations

Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-07-18 19:00

I know Mauriats get a lot of rave reviews from PLAYERS, but you should be listening to the reports made by REPAIRERS who've had the unenviable task of working on them as they will give you the absolute lowdown.

Put any sax in a players hands and they will only comment on it from a player's point of view. Even some top players have given rave reviews on Chinese saxes.

But you need to get under the skin of any instrument which is something players don't tend to do. Take a magnifying glass and inspect every element that's gone into making any sax and that should be the determining factor.

I know someone with a Mauriat alto and he's regretting his decision as he has fallen out of love with it and prefers to borrow a Yamaha 275 alto from someone instead of using his Mauriat alto as it's much easier all round for him. At the time he liked the Mauriat, but then the shine (even though it's got a scratched finish) wore off very quickly.

It's not all about how shiny or antique it looks, if it plays like a modern day 10M or has rolled toneholes, abalone touches, blah, blah, blah - that's all superficial stuff. Take into consideration the quality of the build and finish, the quality of materials used in its construction, the fit and finish of the keywork and rod screws, the ergonomics, the tuning and the potential long term playability or desirability.

Another new maker I wasn't particularly impressed with was Lupifaro - I worked on a brand new tenor which had a leak in the crook 8ve vent (not soldered in properly) and I found the keywork was very thin in places and wasn't made very well - I'd have expected to see that sort of thing on Chinese saxes.

Even brand new Selmers aren't without their faults - far too many faults for a company with such heritage.

There are now a couple more Japanese companies besides Yamaha and Yanagisawa offering saxes - Azien and Forestone. I don't know if they're made entirely in Japan or are (like so many new saxes) made for them either entirely or in part by Taiwanese, Vietnamese or Chinese companies. I need to look into these more, but no-one I know owns nor plays them.

Azien: http://www.sax.co.jp/sax_e.html

Forestone: http://www.forestone-saxophone.com/saxophones.html

But if you want a known entity, I'd say stick with Yamaha or Yanagsiawa as both are well established and well respected makers.

Yamaha tenors are unique as far as modern tenors go in they don't use the LH main action layout based on the Selmer design - they have an independent LH3 key instead of it running directly over the top of the Bis key pad cup. The only other saxes that do that are older American models or Buffet S1/Prestige tenors. But all Yamaha tenors (except the old 21 and 61 series) are built with independent fingerbuttons just like an alto. It also means both hands are slightly closer together than on a Selmer or Yanagisawa.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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