We're dragging this OT, but it's sort of relevant.
Late last year I bought a cheap chinese sax, simply because it had a Selmer mouthpiece (but no specs given) and the buy it now price was about what the sax was worth. Had no intention of keeping the sax, or the mouthpiece, but wanted to split and sell on. (mercenary, but Bari GAS needs to be funded). The sax arrived, with an S80, C* and it's original mouthpiece. Just for fun I tried the sax, on a few mouthpieces. Sax was really difficult to play on all except the Selmer, kept jumping an octave, and you never knew when you blew a note, what was going to happen. I stuck the Selmer on, and it blew clean from top to bottom. Still a touch tricky on a few notes, but nowhere near so bad.
Speculation, but as far as I can tell, the sax had been bought for a girl to learn on, and she'd given up quickly, the sax was like new. Pity, I bet she was completely disillusioned by the stock mouthpiece and the problems with the instrument, and by the time the Selmer arrived it was too late.
So I tried the Selmer on another cheap chinese alto. Same story. Tricky with other pieces, but reasonable on that.
So I tried the Selmer on the Kohlert, which is set up well. Blew cleanly and easily..... But compared to the modern Soloist E I was using, very poor sound. But a much easier blow. And the hardest blow was the mouthpiece that came with the Kohlert, a vintage Brilhart Tonalin Personalin S5. But what a sound. I'll stick with the soloists for now, but when I improve, that Brilhart will become my main alto piece. Warm, round, rich, but not overdark or harsh. Warmer than the Meyers. I'm beginning to think I shold get that copied, with an easier to play facing.
I repeated the exercise recently when the Pillinger copy arrived. No real change. But it was interesting to hear how close the Pillinger copy was to the modern piece. In some ways I preferred the modern one.
I came to the conclusion that the S80 C* is very sax friendly, very player friendly (from the number of recommendations) and a good, if expensive, choice as it hides a lot of faults that would otherwise impede progress. One other thought was that the S80 doesn't have such a characteristic sound, allowing the player more control, but less extreme results. Only downside is the price. Imagine buying a cheap sax for less than 200 and then being told by your teacher that the mouthpiece is rubbish, and you need to spend another 100 for a better mouthpiece. No wonder Yamaha get so many recommendations. Like the Selmer and the Ricos, they work.....
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