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Linky Lee
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,954
- Location
- Salisbury, UK
A couple of you noticed in my signature that I've now acquired a Yamaha 62 alto in replace of my Hanson SA-8(which I still haven't sold, any offers anyone?). They also requested a bit of a 'review'.
Since I've had it a week or so now and had some proper time with it and had a saxophone lesson with it and so on, I thought I'd review it now as I know it a bit better.
First of all, I bought this second hand at what I feel was a respectable price for it's condition. Which is essentially perfect except for a few bits of lacquer spotting here and there. This is one of the older 62s so has the purple logo which I know a few people have posted about not liking and subsequently removing. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm pretty sure it's going to stay as it doesn't actually bother me at all, I think I may even like it 😱
With regard to keywork, I've found it is incredibly light. I could fiddle with the springs a tad and get a bit more weight on it, but it seems to be working lovely at the moment so I won't fiddle just yet. The pearls are nicely sized and rounded, not to deep not too shallow (which I find with the Walstein tenor). I'm most impressed with the bell key arrangement though. It's the best I've ever came across. A it's very light, B it's compact so no huge stretching but best of all is C which is that it only moves a small amount relative to other systems I've used which makes the always tricky low C# to B a breeze!
I think Yamahas are the only instruments to have the front F key in the right place. It comes round under your finger and along the top of the B key which means you can use it in many different ways, such as rolling, sliding or just lifting and replacing. Other front Fs I've came across seem to come from the other side and point out under your finger. I find these are often placed terribly badly and are much harder to roll onto or to slide onto.
The low Eb/C arrangement also has low amounts of movement making that C to Eb move a bit easier than usual.
Build quality wise, it appears to be very sturdy and obviously has been treated with care, no dents or minor dings anywhere and barely a scratch, except around the sling hook area.
The instrument plays bang in tune all the way up and down but hat impresses me the most is the ease that the top and bottom notes pop out. Something that was winding me up with my previous altos. The Hanson has the easiest bottom end I've ever came across but was much stuffier than the Martin alto I had at the top end and needed much more work to get the tonal quality up there because of that. The Yamaha seems to sit in the middle and then just raise the level a bit.
Tone wise, I've noticed it is a bit brighter than the Hanson and a bit thinner than the Martin. This isn't really a bad thing as the Martin was very soft a lyrical, much more suited to ballads than anything else. And the Hanson was pretty average all round but sometimes needed a tad more edge. The Yamaha seems to sit in and blend with other instruments well, yet still cut through when pushed and retains it's depth of sound.
I've used both my Yanagisawa 6 and my Link 6 on it which both sound fantastic. I also used my teachers Claude Lakey 5*3 mouthpiece on it which was fantastic. A wider tip opening and lay and a square chamber on the inside. It was a much 'fuller' sound, but louder too. After a while I could control it better and had a lovely rich rounded sound. I'm now going to get my link refaced to a large tip opening/lay and am going to see what that does. If I like it I'll probably follow suit with the brighter Yanagisawa too.
The case is lovely, though I can't throw it over my back which means I can't cycle to my sax lessons unless I put it in the Hiscox case which is a pain as I don't have another case the Martin fits in. It's very nice to carry though and has a brown appearance which is nice as cases tend to be black.
I played my teachers MK.VI again and did a bit of a comparison. The MK.VI had very similar keywork, except a few keys like the front F and side F# key. No top F# key either. The feel of the keys was heavier, but equally as quick and responsive. I prefer this feel but not quite as much as the MK.VI in question was set-up. I think I'll get the Yamaha serviced even though I could find no leaks and get them to tweak the springs etc. a tad. With regard to the tone, I couldn't really tell much difference. The MK.VI needed less effort to really get into the core of it though, it seemed just easier to make it sound good, though the Yamaha is fantastic in that area as it is more variable than the MK.VI I could also get the Yamaha to play much quieter because of this which kind of balances it out. Over all it compared very well, and if money wasn't an issue I'd be hard p
pushed to decide which one I'd want.
Overall I really like the horn and can see myself keeping it in the future. I still need more time with it to settle down and really get to know it, but so far I haven't found anything off-putting yet.
Since I've had it a week or so now and had some proper time with it and had a saxophone lesson with it and so on, I thought I'd review it now as I know it a bit better.
First of all, I bought this second hand at what I feel was a respectable price for it's condition. Which is essentially perfect except for a few bits of lacquer spotting here and there. This is one of the older 62s so has the purple logo which I know a few people have posted about not liking and subsequently removing. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm pretty sure it's going to stay as it doesn't actually bother me at all, I think I may even like it 😱
With regard to keywork, I've found it is incredibly light. I could fiddle with the springs a tad and get a bit more weight on it, but it seems to be working lovely at the moment so I won't fiddle just yet. The pearls are nicely sized and rounded, not to deep not too shallow (which I find with the Walstein tenor). I'm most impressed with the bell key arrangement though. It's the best I've ever came across. A it's very light, B it's compact so no huge stretching but best of all is C which is that it only moves a small amount relative to other systems I've used which makes the always tricky low C# to B a breeze!
I think Yamahas are the only instruments to have the front F key in the right place. It comes round under your finger and along the top of the B key which means you can use it in many different ways, such as rolling, sliding or just lifting and replacing. Other front Fs I've came across seem to come from the other side and point out under your finger. I find these are often placed terribly badly and are much harder to roll onto or to slide onto.
The low Eb/C arrangement also has low amounts of movement making that C to Eb move a bit easier than usual.
Build quality wise, it appears to be very sturdy and obviously has been treated with care, no dents or minor dings anywhere and barely a scratch, except around the sling hook area.
The instrument plays bang in tune all the way up and down but hat impresses me the most is the ease that the top and bottom notes pop out. Something that was winding me up with my previous altos. The Hanson has the easiest bottom end I've ever came across but was much stuffier than the Martin alto I had at the top end and needed much more work to get the tonal quality up there because of that. The Yamaha seems to sit in the middle and then just raise the level a bit.
Tone wise, I've noticed it is a bit brighter than the Hanson and a bit thinner than the Martin. This isn't really a bad thing as the Martin was very soft a lyrical, much more suited to ballads than anything else. And the Hanson was pretty average all round but sometimes needed a tad more edge. The Yamaha seems to sit in and blend with other instruments well, yet still cut through when pushed and retains it's depth of sound.
I've used both my Yanagisawa 6 and my Link 6 on it which both sound fantastic. I also used my teachers Claude Lakey 5*3 mouthpiece on it which was fantastic. A wider tip opening and lay and a square chamber on the inside. It was a much 'fuller' sound, but louder too. After a while I could control it better and had a lovely rich rounded sound. I'm now going to get my link refaced to a large tip opening/lay and am going to see what that does. If I like it I'll probably follow suit with the brighter Yanagisawa too.
The case is lovely, though I can't throw it over my back which means I can't cycle to my sax lessons unless I put it in the Hiscox case which is a pain as I don't have another case the Martin fits in. It's very nice to carry though and has a brown appearance which is nice as cases tend to be black.
I played my teachers MK.VI again and did a bit of a comparison. The MK.VI had very similar keywork, except a few keys like the front F and side F# key. No top F# key either. The feel of the keys was heavier, but equally as quick and responsive. I prefer this feel but not quite as much as the MK.VI in question was set-up. I think I'll get the Yamaha serviced even though I could find no leaks and get them to tweak the springs etc. a tad. With regard to the tone, I couldn't really tell much difference. The MK.VI needed less effort to really get into the core of it though, it seemed just easier to make it sound good, though the Yamaha is fantastic in that area as it is more variable than the MK.VI I could also get the Yamaha to play much quieter because of this which kind of balances it out. Over all it compared very well, and if money wasn't an issue I'd be hard p
pushed to decide which one I'd want.
Overall I really like the horn and can see myself keeping it in the future. I still need more time with it to settle down and really get to know it, but so far I haven't found anything off-putting yet.
