My first horn is a purple logo YTS 62. I recently bought a Hansons ST 5 for my daughter and I like it so much that I've let her use my 62 while I get to know the ST 5 better.
For fun (and a bit of extra cash) I buy and sell student saxes regularly. A week or so ago I got hold of an 'heavily used' Palatino Tenor for peanuts.. It wasn't blowing cleanly and obviously needed a service; so it got one courtesy of my usual technician at MCL media in Watford. I didn't go for a full overhaul which it could have done with, but just a simple adjustment as I didn'.t see the point in throwing more at it than it's worth. Well I got it back today and wow. The tone is warm and,fat all through the range and the volume dynamics and projection are really good. It plays beautiful sub tone as well.The keyboard and mech (which would definitely benefit from a full overhaul) is nevertheless slick, positive and effortless.
I'd say that all in all, it compares very well with a good intermediate horn of the same period, like a YTS32 or Jupiter 789-787; certainly on the sound and feel anyway and in all honesty, is perfectly capable of competing with a YTS62.
I don't know much (or care much tbh) about the detailed technical reasons why a pro sax can cost 8 times that of a student horn; I'm far more interested in the sound and ease of playability that the horn offers. And this thing is a really pleasant suprise.
So having said that I'm not really interested in why; I'm gna ask....why do we pay huge sums for a 'pro' horn and is it really worth the extra outlay?
For fun (and a bit of extra cash) I buy and sell student saxes regularly. A week or so ago I got hold of an 'heavily used' Palatino Tenor for peanuts.. It wasn't blowing cleanly and obviously needed a service; so it got one courtesy of my usual technician at MCL media in Watford. I didn't go for a full overhaul which it could have done with, but just a simple adjustment as I didn'.t see the point in throwing more at it than it's worth. Well I got it back today and wow. The tone is warm and,fat all through the range and the volume dynamics and projection are really good. It plays beautiful sub tone as well.The keyboard and mech (which would definitely benefit from a full overhaul) is nevertheless slick, positive and effortless.
I'd say that all in all, it compares very well with a good intermediate horn of the same period, like a YTS32 or Jupiter 789-787; certainly on the sound and feel anyway and in all honesty, is perfectly capable of competing with a YTS62.
I don't know much (or care much tbh) about the detailed technical reasons why a pro sax can cost 8 times that of a student horn; I'm far more interested in the sound and ease of playability that the horn offers. And this thing is a really pleasant suprise.
So having said that I'm not really interested in why; I'm gna ask....why do we pay huge sums for a 'pro' horn and is it really worth the extra outlay?