Good shops for vintage and used horns...

[danmays]

Looking to trade my alto in for a used horn, what shops in England are good for them?I've been to Howarths so far in London

Cheers
Dan

 

[Bobby G]

Michael White's in Ealing usually has a good selection of previously-enjoyed altos

 

[griff136]

quite a few of the shops out there probably wont trade a sax but will sell your instrument on commission basis.

what have you got to sell/trade and what are you looking for?

someone on here may be able to help.

 

[suethesax]

Woodwind Exchange in Bradford. Stuart will often do a deal if it works for him. http://www.woodwindexchange.com/

 

[danmays]

Currently have a black Keilwerth EX90 series two retails at about ?1300 here's some pictures.... Looking for probably a MK6 or a super balanced action but all depends on the feel of the horn when I play it

🙂

 

[saxafonic]

so how do you find the EX90?

 

[danmays]

Its a good horn... But I have a SX90R tenor which I absolutely love so I'm looking for something with the same feel as my tenor and something that's guna last me for a good while. I'm guessing you have one too what are your opinions on it?

Dan

 

[jools]

Hey.
I'll second the Woodwind Exchange in Bradford call, although I went there today for my monthly visit, and was deep in conversation with Stuart about a lot of the things we talk about here. He was saying that the bottom has pretty much fallen out of the 'second hand' horn market unless it's collectable or vintage. There was a woman in the shop at the time selling an Armstrong 60's alto and had left there 4 years ago. She'd come to pick it up as it hadn't sold. Partly due to that fact that she was asking ?400. After she'd gone, we all agreed that we'd seen those go for about ?80 on Ebay.

Ebay has single handedly destroyed the shop trade for 'cheaper' horns, and many traders won't touch them as trade-ins for that same reason. When you can buy a brand new and credible Chinese sax for about ?100, who would bother having an old one re-padded for ?200?.

The best deal you'll probably get is to leave it at a shop and get them to sell on commission. Even then, you'll be up against Ebay. You could also try 'OTHER' auction sites on the net, adverts in your local paper, or sadly... setting your selling price low.

In the last few years the whole market has changed.

 

[Bobby G]

I'd agree with that Jools, when I've been in saxophinic emporia discussing possible trade-ins they are basically not interested in what I have to offer (i.e. my 40's Dolnet) which demonstrates that even if you can find a place that's willing to do trade-ins you have to have the right type of collectible horn.....

Not that I particularly want rid of the Dolnet, of course, I just thought someone somewhere might be interested in it, and I'd probably have to go through the biggest 'shop' around i.e. the devil's junkyard to generate maximum interest.

 

[jools]

Many buyers (generally not sax-snobs) these days are deciding that when you can buy
Alto Saxophones from ?179
- what's the point in spending ?250 on a service and repad on an old or vintage one that cost ?300 and will still need more annual maintenance - AND looks shabby?

Where once, the average punter would buy an old Conn or Buescher in a second hand music shop for "little Jimmy' or "Jemima" to learn on, now they are picking up the sparkly new ones off the internet - delivered to the door. And when these horns need a service or repad - they get thrown away (or end up back on the internet, as needing some TLC). The vintage market is becoming increasingly more specialist. We are becoming like the "MG Owners Club" of the instrument world.

Stuart told me that to compete with Ebay, he has had to cut nearly 30% (in some instances) off the price of old horns, as nothing in the shop was moving.

 

[danmays]

This is awful! How can someone buy a horn off the internet?! There's no kind of sense in that for me it's all about the feel.. Reading that has made me sad 🙁 Me thinks I shall take a trip to woodwind exchange over the summer.

Dan