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Message: <blockquote data-quote="scooch" data-source="post: 616375" data-attributes="member: 10477"><p>Hello All,</p><p>I am hoping to get some sturdy advice from this forum as I've decided I want to take up the sax (been wanting to learn for a couple of years but have finally decided to goforit!).  I can read music and I play piano (a bit), but I've never even held a saxophone, much less played one!).  I've done loads of online research into saxes but the more I read the more I'm confused, I'm even close to putting the project on 'hold' again as I don't want to make the wrong purchase for my first sax.</p><p>Although I like the look and sound of tenor best, I've decided to start on an alto as I've read they are easier to learn on, and cheaper(!), and also there seems to be a lot more learning material (dvds) and sheet music with backing cds for alto than tenor. I figure that if sax is for me I can get into tenor at a later date.  OK, first decision made(kinda).  </p><p></p><p>Onto finding a sax. </p><p></p><p>I'm looking at a budget of about 400/450, but I am really looking to find something with a quality tone. I know too well that a cheap instrument that sounds rubbish will put me off playing altogether, whereas if you can only play three notes on a sax that has a great tone, they can still sound great!  With that in mind I was going to go for the Trevor James Classic. Then I saw that www.saxophones.co.uk have a make called sakkusu which is made by elkhart with a yamaha mouthpiece with is supposed to be as good as the TJC.  What sort of Grade in music could the TJ Classic take me to?  As now I am thinking that maybe even this is not a great starter instrument.  So then I was looking at the TJ Horn Revolution and the Yamaha YAS-275, but these are really out of budget, and I don't want to spend a fortune if I don't enjoy playing sax afterall (the very thought!!).  Then I read about the Hanson saxes, and their intermediate range (SA5) would be a little over budget but I could live with that.  Can anyone rate the Hansons vs the Trevor James. Or recommend another horn that is suitable for beginners with a great tone.  Finally, can anyone clarify the difference between the Hanson SA5 Classic and the SA5 Eclipse? It says the eclipse has 'extended key guards', what the heck are they and why would I want them?  </p><p></p><p>Sorry for the length of this post, I don't have a teacher (yet) who can advise me, and well they can be biased towards brands too.  I plan on getting a teacher  at some stage but not straight away (hey I will have blown the cash on a sax!).</p><p></p><p>Any advice for this newbie would be great.</p><p>All the best.</p><p>Scooch.</p></blockquote><p></p>

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