Saxophones Don't know why I purchased this but I just did!

C_Claudemonster · Aug 26, 2012

Hi All,
I'm not sure what possessed me to buy one of these but I've just purchased an Amati Kraslice AAS-23 alto sax for £100 in all brass/gold lacquer and it looks in superb condition. I think this is maybe why? as I thought it may be a super bargain sax that I could take down the pub to play instead of my Silver Trevor James alto that I think alot of!! It looks bloomin decent for the money so I wondered if any of you had opinions of the tonal & playing qualities of these saxes. It seems like a modern aas 23 model, though I know they stopped making this model but when I'm not sure!
Thoughts are welcome as I'm intrigued 🙂

Nick Wyver · Aug 27, 2012

The ones I've seen have been pretty average, but I expect it's perfectly playable.

This always puzzles me. When I'm in playing in public anywhere I want to have the best sax I've got, not some old piece of tat (I'm not saying the Amati is, but it just seems to be a lot of people's attitude - the best sax always stays at home). This afternoon - in a pub - I had about £12,000 worth of saxes with me. It makes my job easier.

aldevis · Aug 27, 2012

Nick Wyver said:
I had about £12,000 worth of saxes with me. It makes my job easier.

£1,200 worth of horns do the job, £12,000 do the job funnier.

I played my £500 JP for the money (4 gigs in 2 days, excellent horn) but my yanagisawa made me drool (in a good sense)...

dooce · Aug 27, 2012

I bought one a couple of years ago - it was about 20 years old and a bit of a basket case but I did it up and it played OK, but I could never get on with the, what seemed to me, clonky keywork - compared to my other saxes, which are all relatively modern, nothing seemed in the right place and it was just a trial to play, so I flogged it - for a slight profit happily! I'm not damning it, there's nowt wrong with Amatis, but it just didn't suit me. Hope you have better luck.

C_Claudemonster · Aug 28, 2012

lol, I was trying to think of the word to describe the keywork of these older German/Czech saxes and 'Clonky' is perfect to describe the lumpiness of them! I play a Weltklang solist silver plate tenor with very Clonky keywork but I put up with is as it's built like a tank and sounds lovely - and I wouldn't have it any other way, bless it!

Nick Wyver · Aug 28, 2012

aldevis said:
£1,200 worth of horns do the job

You might struggle to achieve that including a baritone (+tenor and alto).

Anyway, I've got 'em. Why the hell wouldn't I want to play them?

aldevis · Aug 29, 2012

Nick Wyver said:
You might struggle to achieve that including a baritone (+tenor and alto).

Anyway, I've got 'em. Why the hell wouldn't I want to play them?

Justabout, with some luck (excluding mouthpieces....)

We often touch this topic. I get your point, but I still think that crappy place packed with molesting drunkies does not deserve the subtlety of my expensive lovely axe.