September 13: A Sax Odyssey
WARNING: The following post is deeply saxophone-centric, and is pretty much intended for the two (or three if you throw in my father) Sax Heads who regularly read this blog. Read on if you like, but things are about to get pretty nerdy pretty quickly. Consider yourself warned.
So, having made the decision sometime last week that what I really need right now is to add a new tenor saxophone to my collection -- which right now is comprised entirely of one alto saxophone -- I set out to Harness the Power of the Internet in order to see what was out there. Since my alto is a Yamaha 62, I am already intimately familiar with the qualities of Yamaha instruments, and since I played both the Selmer Serie II and Serie III tenors while at St. Olaf, I know all about those. I am also fortunate enough to have a very generous friend in G-Money, who often lent me his Selmer Reference 36 tenor, and if my budget allowed me to buy a seven thousand dollar tenor, the Reference 36 would be my top choice, along with the Serie III.
Sadly, all of the Selmers -- even used -- are out of my price range at the moment... and besides, if I was going to throw down that kind of money, I'd probably also be looking at a vintage Selmer Mark VI tenor. But since I can't really justify that kind of expenditure right now, that's a conversation that will have to wait. What I did say to myself was that I needed to look at instruments that are below $2000, and the farther below $2000, the better. But it must be a good horn, it must look good, and it needs to be a professional caliber-horn, since, when I think about it, I really am a professional-caliber player.
Those requirements left me with several good options, and I investigated further. I came up with the following four options: the P. Mauriat PMST-66R, the B&S Medusa, the Kessler Custom, and the Yamaha YTS-82Z. The Medusa wound up getting crossed off pretty early, since, even though I really like the look, it's not being made anymore, and the word on the street is that the production facility went seriously downhill towards the end of the final production run. Nuts to that. The leaves the Kessler, the Mauriat, and the Yamaha Z. This is where I began my odyssey this morning.
One of the neat things about living in a city with literally thousands of professional sax players is that there are actually shops which cater to people who aren't looking for the cheapest hunk of tin to buy for their child. (Side note: Mayor, if you're still thinking about Element, you might want to open a branch out here... it would boom.) However, just because the shops carry the high-end stuff doesn't mean that the people who work there have any idea what they're doing. With that in mind, I called over to the local Yamaha dealer because, even though the Z is actually way outside my price range, I love my alto and am exceptionally curious about the unlacquered version that the Z comes in. So I get some clerk on the line and tell them I'm looking for a specific tenor sax, namely the YTS-82ZUL (UL for UnLacquered). He goes away to check and I eat some Pop Tarts. He comes back and tells me that they don't have any of the Zs in stock, but he offers me two options: he can order me one (not happening, since I won't be buying until January at the earliest... and besides, I'm not going to buy a sax I've never played just because I think I'd probably like it), or he can offer me what he calls a "comparable" horn. What horn is that, I asked him. He offers me the YTS-475, which Yamaha refers to as "a great step-up horn for the growing young saxophonist." I told the guy -- very politely -- that I wasn't interested, and mentally shelved the idea of buying a Z for the time being.
Happily, the Kessler Custom horn is made by a shop here in Las Vegas, so I mounted up The Cheat and drove way over to the other side of town to blow their horn. As you may have noticed, these are almost ridiculously affordable instruments, and they're made in Taiwan. Neither makes you feel particularly good about their potential quality, but the possibility of buying a tenor saxophone for under a thousand is enough to make me get in my car and drive just to check it out.
The east side branch of Kessler & Sons Music is in an old-school wooden strip-mall which features a gas station, a convenience store, and three separate storefront churches, all with bars on the windows because the east side of Las Vegas is pretty much a war zone at night. But I had read some really remarkable things about these horns on the internet, so I boldly walked in and, after telling the counter help that I was there for saxes, I was immediately introduced to Dave Kessler himself. He told me some things about his in-house Kessler saxes (I'd relate them, but that's pretty much too nerdy, even for this post), and then gave me one to check out. Because Kessler & Sons is a real-deal sax shop, he even let me try the horn with a few different mouthpieces, a few different ligatures, and even a few different necks from other horns. The best setup by far was with the Kessler pro mouthpiece (a hard rubber job modeled after the metal Florida Link), my Vandoren 3s, and a goldbrass neck from a Selmer Serie III. Frankly, I was totally blown away by the quality and responsiveness of this horn. I could have sworn the keywork was right off my old Serie III, and it blew better than my Yamaha 62 alto. And the best part, of course, is that even with all those upgrades -- and with Nevada's obscene 7.75% sales tax -- the whole deal was out the door for $1275.
I still have to look into the P. Mauriat horns -- I think the closest dealer is in Denver, so that's going to be a difficult proposition -- and I really want to try that un-lacquered Yamaha Z, but for now I'm pretty much sold on the Kessler. Great horn, killer sound, and I can even still get a big gold-on-blue Selmer S up on the neck to make me feel like a Real Boy. G-Money, when you roll up next month, and if you have some spare time to go on an odyssey of your own, we should head over there so you can dig these too. I think you'll be surprised; I definitely was.
So, having made the decision sometime last week that what I really need right now is to add a new tenor saxophone to my collection -- which right now is comprised entirely of one alto saxophone -- I set out to Harness the Power of the Internet in order to see what was out there. Since my alto is a Yamaha 62, I am already intimately familiar with the qualities of Yamaha instruments, and since I played both the Selmer Serie II and Serie III tenors while at St. Olaf, I know all about those. I am also fortunate enough to have a very generous friend in G-Money, who often lent me his Selmer Reference 36 tenor, and if my budget allowed me to buy a seven thousand dollar tenor, the Reference 36 would be my top choice, along with the Serie III.
Sadly, all of the Selmers -- even used -- are out of my price range at the moment... and besides, if I was going to throw down that kind of money, I'd probably also be looking at a vintage Selmer Mark VI tenor. But since I can't really justify that kind of expenditure right now, that's a conversation that will have to wait. What I did say to myself was that I needed to look at instruments that are below $2000, and the farther below $2000, the better. But it must be a good horn, it must look good, and it needs to be a professional caliber-horn, since, when I think about it, I really am a professional-caliber player.
Those requirements left me with several good options, and I investigated further. I came up with the following four options: the P. Mauriat PMST-66R, the B&S Medusa, the Kessler Custom, and the Yamaha YTS-82Z. The Medusa wound up getting crossed off pretty early, since, even though I really like the look, it's not being made anymore, and the word on the street is that the production facility went seriously downhill towards the end of the final production run. Nuts to that. The leaves the Kessler, the Mauriat, and the Yamaha Z. This is where I began my odyssey this morning.
One of the neat things about living in a city with literally thousands of professional sax players is that there are actually shops which cater to people who aren't looking for the cheapest hunk of tin to buy for their child. (Side note: Mayor, if you're still thinking about Element, you might want to open a branch out here... it would boom.) However, just because the shops carry the high-end stuff doesn't mean that the people who work there have any idea what they're doing. With that in mind, I called over to the local Yamaha dealer because, even though the Z is actually way outside my price range, I love my alto and am exceptionally curious about the unlacquered version that the Z comes in. So I get some clerk on the line and tell them I'm looking for a specific tenor sax, namely the YTS-82ZUL (UL for UnLacquered). He goes away to check and I eat some Pop Tarts. He comes back and tells me that they don't have any of the Zs in stock, but he offers me two options: he can order me one (not happening, since I won't be buying until January at the earliest... and besides, I'm not going to buy a sax I've never played just because I think I'd probably like it), or he can offer me what he calls a "comparable" horn. What horn is that, I asked him. He offers me the YTS-475, which Yamaha refers to as "a great step-up horn for the growing young saxophonist." I told the guy -- very politely -- that I wasn't interested, and mentally shelved the idea of buying a Z for the time being.
Happily, the Kessler Custom horn is made by a shop here in Las Vegas, so I mounted up The Cheat and drove way over to the other side of town to blow their horn. As you may have noticed, these are almost ridiculously affordable instruments, and they're made in Taiwan. Neither makes you feel particularly good about their potential quality, but the possibility of buying a tenor saxophone for under a thousand is enough to make me get in my car and drive just to check it out.
The east side branch of Kessler & Sons Music is in an old-school wooden strip-mall which features a gas station, a convenience store, and three separate storefront churches, all with bars on the windows because the east side of Las Vegas is pretty much a war zone at night. But I had read some really remarkable things about these horns on the internet, so I boldly walked in and, after telling the counter help that I was there for saxes, I was immediately introduced to Dave Kessler himself. He told me some things about his in-house Kessler saxes (I'd relate them, but that's pretty much too nerdy, even for this post), and then gave me one to check out. Because Kessler & Sons is a real-deal sax shop, he even let me try the horn with a few different mouthpieces, a few different ligatures, and even a few different necks from other horns. The best setup by far was with the Kessler pro mouthpiece (a hard rubber job modeled after the metal Florida Link), my Vandoren 3s, and a goldbrass neck from a Selmer Serie III. Frankly, I was totally blown away by the quality and responsiveness of this horn. I could have sworn the keywork was right off my old Serie III, and it blew better than my Yamaha 62 alto. And the best part, of course, is that even with all those upgrades -- and with Nevada's obscene 7.75% sales tax -- the whole deal was out the door for $1275.
I still have to look into the P. Mauriat horns -- I think the closest dealer is in Denver, so that's going to be a difficult proposition -- and I really want to try that un-lacquered Yamaha Z, but for now I'm pretty much sold on the Kessler. Great horn, killer sound, and I can even still get a big gold-on-blue Selmer S up on the neck to make me feel like a Real Boy. G-Money, when you roll up next month, and if you have some spare time to go on an odyssey of your own, we should head over there so you can dig these too. I think you'll be surprised; I definitely was.
posted by Buckwalter at 12:52 PM
1 Comments:
Oh Buckwalter! I think the saxophone for the growing player would be perfect! Along with eating your asparagus to become a big strong boy and drinking your milk. You're well on your way to becoming a man! How exciting!
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