New site content

[Pete Thomas]

Over the next few weeks there will be lots of new content and resources. The latest is an update to the saxophone reeds page - lots of extra info. As always, feedback gratefully received.

Coming soon reed & saxophone comparisons and reviews.

I have just done a comparison of 5 tenors with soundclips - My Conn 10M, The Martin along with a Selmer MKVI, Yanagisawa 901 and Walstein.

 

[frankb]

Pete, you're a gentleman.

Your site is a great place to be and, by the sound of it, getting better all the time. Many thanks for your efforts.

 

[peter_fitton]

Pete, this is just an idea and I know you're a busy guy and may well not have the time... but you were saying a while ago that you were intending to pop down to sax.co.uk to try out and review their Sakkusu saxes.

In view of the improving quality of cheaper saxes and the number of people on this forum who are new to the sax and, understandably, don't want to spend a fortune on their first horn, I wonder if it would be possible for you to also have a go on the other inexpensive saxes they have - such as the Selmer Preludes, Jupiters, Trevor James Classics etc and post your impressions/short reviews of them?

I know you rate the Walsteins and Hansons very highly and have said good things about the gear4music saxes but I think it would be very helpful for people wanting to take up the sax if there were reviews available on the net for more of the cheaper saxes available. Most of the reviews that I can find tend to be of the high-end pro saxes.

Like I said, just a suggestion and I realise it may be impractical for you but if it were possible I think reviews of these saxes would be a valuable resource for the newbie sax player 🙂

Cheers

Peter

 

[Pete Thomas]

I entirely agree and would do that if I can get hold of review instruments. One caveat is that I'm not going to pretend any reviews are objective, I don't believe that's possible except for some technical and build issues.

However I can tell you right now that I prefer Hansons and Walsteins to a Trevor James or Jupiter. I haven't tried a Selmer Prelude so won't comment.

I am still very keen to get down to sax.co.uk to try the Sakkusu (not to mention all the other horns there, I'm esp interested to see how the Mauriats compare to the Hansons)

Getting back to subjectivity - when I tried a Hanson ST-8 tenor, I absolutely loved the sound and feel, but Stephen Howard did not. I borrowed a hanson baritone and both Stephen and Roger Lewis (baritone player with Dirty Dozen and Selmer endorsor) both agreed it was a great horn. In fact Roger thought it compared very well with his Selmer series II.

 

[Rogerb]

The likelihood is, Pete, that if you 'love' an inexpensive sax, it would be morethan likely to be at least 'good enough' for a complete beginner.

We (who've done our research!) know that you and Stephen have different tastes and priorities.... for one thing he loves his Yamaha 62 !... but a 'highly recommended' from either of you would be a very positive pointer for me 🙂

 

[Pete Thomas]

Rogerb wrote:
We (who've done our research!) know that you and Stephen have different tastes and priorities....

Not always, read the last paragraph on this page

And I know for sure that he rates Walsteins quite favourably.

 

[greg_strange]

Pete,
Can't wait to read/hear the tenor sax comparsion review. It's a pity you could not get hold of a pro Yamaha like a 61, 62, 875 or 82Z model or even a Keilwerth to mix it up a bit.

Alto sax review next?

Regards,
Greg Strange.