jollysun/bently tenor sax

fireal8170 · May 13, 2007

hi,
i am new to this site but i in need of a bit of advice. i played clarinet and bass clarinet up to grade 4 and then moved onto alto sax when i was in school and stopped when i left nearly 4 years ago. i am going to start lessons again on my alto sax but i want to buy a cheap tenor as well. i have seen a "jollysun" sax on ebay but i dont know anything about this brand. i was wondering if anyone has purchased a jollysun tenor sax if they have regretted it or is it worth the pennies they are up for? i have also seen bently saxes on ebay which are cheap does anyone have any info on these???

cheers,
andy

Saxlicker · May 13, 2007

Hi Andy,
Welcome to the Breakfast room.
There are alot of cheap saxes available these days and no doubt their quality varies.

I can't speak for these two brands but gut feeling says...if you get at all serious about keeping it up, they'd turn out to be a false economy.

Pete Thomas · May 13, 2007

I've not heard of Jollysun. I've heard of Bently but no experience. The very cheap makes I know that are good are Gear4Music and Walstein. (Walstein is better).

Beware of buying on ebay unless from a reputable dealer with a money back warrantee.

NB, I'll move this to saxophones.

Pjonah · May 13, 2007

Well I have experience of both!

Stear clear of Jollysun, absolute garbage IMO, really bad build quality.

The Bently is totally different ball game, I have a Bentley Baritone and its the best baritone I've ever played, Beats my old Beucher into a hat! Seriously! I can hardly believe I said that or perhaps I should qualify that a bit.
My old Beucher was solid as a rock the Bently is not, the Bently plays like a tenor the Beucher did not. You could do ten years of hard gigging with the Beucher the Bently would probably not manage it. But the Bently's tone is so linear across the entire range its hard to imagine a baritone with a better tone.

I also have a Gear4music alto, which is pretty neat, I don't know about Walstein but I guess they would be pretty good if Pete is endorsing them. I understand Linky Lee would be better at advising on the Walstein Tenor.

Simon

Linky Lee · May 13, 2007

hee hee, Pete doesn't endorse, but he does own a Walstein soprano and had a tenor in his possession.

I rate the Walstein very highly. I bought mine in preference to a Yanigasawa T902. The Walstein is a T992 copy, it isn't quite as good, but isn't far off, and for the money is astounding.

Again though, saxophones suit different people differently. I knew I was going to like the Walstein a lot because the T992 was my ideal saxophone before I even tried the Walstein.

If money were no issue, I'd pick the T992 every time. I don't know if I would a T902 though.

philthd · May 14, 2007

bently have a bit of a rep for falling apart easily - but ive never held one personally.

stagg must be avoided at all costs - they cant even make music stands that hold up to the rigours of real life

jambo · May 14, 2007

I had a Bently Curved soprano and it was pretty crap.

It was built quite well, but it was terrible to play. I would go for another more 'well know' brand like the ones that have been recommended above..... theres also hanson

philthd · May 14, 2007

im often tempted by those cheap ebay bently curved sops, but then i think that intonation can be sketchy on an expensive one so the thought of a cheap one fills me with dread. im glad to hear my retisance was sound.

i have no problem with cheap instruments, in fact im all for them, but sometimes you can pay very little for something and still have paid far too much. i keep seeing vintage student instruments going for 100-200 squid more than i would dream of paying for them, even though i would happily own them for the right price

philthd · May 14, 2007

jollysun

im told they're made in india, and someone who tried one of their cornets said it was playable but no better. they look a lot like other indian instruments ive seen but with a different stamp - and i wasnt exactly impressed with them.

jambo · May 14, 2007

philthD wrote:
im often tempted by those cheap ebay bently curved sops, but then i think that intonation can be sketchy on an expensive one so the thought of a cheap one fills me with dread. im glad to hear my retisance was sound.

i have no problem with cheap instruments, in fact im all for them, but sometimes you can pay very little for something and still have paid far too much. i keep seeing vintage student instruments going for 100-200 squid more than i would dream of paying for them, even though i would happily own them for the right price

Yeah, I cant really explain what it was with that Bently Sop, it was just really hard to play- simple as that, just difficult to get a sound out of it.

I have an Elkhart Curved Sop and its great. They sometimes come up on eBay.... aswell as the Blessing ones. They are supposed to be good

Pjonah · May 15, 2007

Jambo wrote:

Yeah, I cant really explain what it was with that Bently Sop, it was just really hard to play- simple as that, just difficult to get a sound out of it.

I have an Elkhart Curved Sop and its great. They sometimes come up on eBay.... aswell as the Blessing ones. They are supposed to be good

[/quote]

Surprises me about the Bently, my Baritone played perfectly out of the case and has a beautiful tone.

Its a series V and plays more like a tenor.

Simon

AlistairD · May 15, 2007

I had a Bently Tenor that was fine. I believe they are assembled in the UK from Chinese parts.

fireal8170 · May 17, 2007

thanks for the advice. im going to have a gander at the other brands mentioned above!

thanks,
andy

Bobby G · May 18, 2007

Trevor James seem ok, I've owned one each of their student and intermediate altos in the past and got on fine with them at the time, (in fact I only got rid to fund the Yamaha 62 that suddenly came my way), and I also have a Artemis curved soprano which is very playable and sounds fine - having seen Jambo's Elkhart curved sop I think they're the same horns with different engraving. I also knew an ex-pro player who was more than happy with his Trevor James low-end tenor, so that's another make to chuck into the mix.

Having said that, I can only agree with others that the reputation of the Walstein and gear4music horns seems pretty good, but as has been said many times before, for not a lot more you can get a Hanson.

Cheers, Bob

jollysunsaxesare_awful · Mar 3, 2008

Hi there, I've bought a jollysun tenor saxophone and it was truly the worst iv'e ever EVER played. Looks beautiful. Looks nice in a glass cabinet perhaps. To play. forget it. Bad waste of money. I created this account just so i could save you from the fate that i suffered! Noooooouuuuuuu... Jollysun - i mean,... if the name wasn't enough to put you off!

PaulyT · Mar 3, 2008

JollysunSaxesAre Awful wrote:
To play. forget it. Bad waste of money. I created this account just so i could save you from the fate that i suffered!

Bless you My son (or daughter)

:laugh:

milandro · Jun 2, 2008

A friend of mine, a capable player and technician, bought a purple Jollysun tenor and struggled to play it for a while (on a gig the thing practically fell apart) then ditched it, there were two problems.
1) the Body and bell were out of alignment because of some transport damage, to be fair this is hardly a jollysun fault
2) all the pads were insufficiently glued with pads that had too little glue (no shellac) in the wrong place

Apparently they are made in China (Jeorge knows by whom) and distributed by the Indian owner of a Emirates company. There are some pretty good Chinese saxes around , go for those. Walstein seem to very good and well priced for you in Britain and Germany

Col9 · Jun 2, 2008

On the cheap tenor front a Selmer Prelude is well worth thinking about. The other half had one and it was great for 12 months and we just passed it on to my mum to learn on. It played superbly out of the box and the only thing to go wrong as such was a cork fell off the G# key.

My daughter has a Gear4Music Trumpet and its fantastic, its the deluxe one. Its both well built and the tone and tuning are spot on. If the sax's are anything like it they will be great.

Goodluck with whatever you decide.

Col.

daveysaxboy · Jun 7, 2008

I got a straight bentley sop and it play's realy nice and is free blowing,great action and am happy with it,it's a yani clone so you know the layout will be good.For the money i was shocked how good it was.