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Paraschos wooden neck

honker

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26
Locality
Worthing South Coast
Just for your info I ordered a Paraschos wooden neck for my Yani T992 from sax.co.uk and as with their legendary efficiency it arrived next day:)In my enthusiasm to try it out ( the sound was wonderful)I omitted to notice that there was a cosiderable amount of pitting , Laquer wear and scratching to all the metal work (and the start of wear to the wood varnish) on the tenon and m/pce connector(it looked secondhand!) I contacted s.c.uk and was told that the condition was typical of the marque but that they would offer me a10% disc. Considering that the neck cost £545.00 I considered the offer derisory relative to my complaint and so returned it for refund:( I have subsequently ordered the same item from Howarths London at a cost of £270!!!!!!!(in stock):welldone Iwill post the outcome on receipt of the neck.
 
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I'm going to break my personal rule of not posting as 'sax.co.uk' here.
I have a couple of things to say in our defence. More of less any serious player will want to try products before buying them- which is only reasonable. unfortunately, as a function of this occassionally items do get minor cosmetic damage, this is unavoidable. We are presented with 2 options- either 'you're not allowed to try items before commiting buying' or accept the fact that a proportion of our stock is likely to have been pre played (We've had professional players regularly claim we are acting unreasonalby to not let thme take out our saxes & mouthpieces out for 'a few gigs' before commiting to buy them- which would certainly lead to cosmetic damage and the neccessity then sell it off at a discount).
The alternative to the situation with the parachos crook would be a strict- you're not allowed to try it first policy... which is clearly unacceptable for all concerned.
As for Howarths- that's got to be a sale item, we can't buy parachos crooks in from the man himself for that price...
 
Paraschos neck

Nachoman's reply is interesting . He is correct in his assumption that Howarths have the item on sale at the moment at a reduced price. However, their regular price for this item is £432.00 against s.c.uk price of £540 a whopping £148.51 difference! Howarths is an established business and I am sure does not sell regular priced items at a loss. I requested a 20% discount from s.c.uk (£108) which I would have accepted and would still have left S.C.uk price £48.51 more than Howarths regular price on which they were obviously making a fair profit. In the past I have tried to buy from s.c.uk as they are relatively local to me and have indeed purchased many ancillary items from them but I have also had issues with their pricing of more substantial items , for example, I tried to but a yani B992 from them (their price at the time £4750)but the price was non negotiable and I subsequently bought it from Howarths at ££3750. Again with the T992 s.c.uk price £2600 eventually purchased from Chamberlain Music at £1900! I leave you to draw your own conclusions!
 
I've always found sax.co.uk to be slightly on the higher price side - not the most expensive, but not the cheapest either. But I think they make up for it with service and choice. They have by far the best range and facilities in the South of England, and I've always found their service to be second to none. Certainly better than Howarths in all these respects. So much so that when I bought my T992 I got it from there.

Howarths are certainly having a massive clear out sale on mouthpieces and crooks, and in fact I bought a very cheap Yanagisawa alto one from them. Much cheaper than anyone else, and I can't see them even covering their costs on what I paid.

Anyway, it's just a different business model between a couple of shops, and in the end the consumer pays their money (or not) and takes their choice. I hope we continue to have this choice - buying solely on price will eventually leave us with just internet based discount suppliers, and no local shops to provide after sales service.

Anyways, maybe that's enough on different retailers. I'd be very interested to hear how the new crook sounds, as well as looks and fits your sax. I've always been a bit of a sceptic when it comes to aftermarket crooks, so I'm looking forward to being proved wrong!
 
paraschos neck

Fair comment re. choices . I will post regarding the neck but as I said initialy the crook from s.c.uk SOUNDED great! ironic really.
 
Nachoman's reply is interesting . He is correct in his assumption that Howarths have the item on sale at the moment at a reduced price. However, their regular price for this item is £432.00 against s.c.uk price of £540 a whopping £148.51 difference! Howarths is an established business and I am sure does not sell regular priced items at a loss. I requested a 20% discount from s.c.uk (£108) which I would have accepted and would still have left S.C.uk price £48.51 more than Howarths regular price on which they were obviously making a fair profit.

I don't particularly want to get involved in this but for the sake of accuracy, £432 from £540 is £108 not £148.

Chris
 
Paraschos neck

My apologies , seems i'm out of order. Oh well!
 
sax.co.uk

Hi
To be totaly open Mr Honker comes to me most weeks for a lesson.

I am a very big fan of Sax.co.uk. I think that going into a shop and being able to try out a number of horns, M.P's, or any other item is a major asset not only to students but also to professional players.

That to one side, I have to point out, that as a one time sales person, Mr Honker is what I would have once referred to as a, Dream Punter.
I have not seen a guy spend as much as he has in the past year experimenting with what is a relatively new love of Saxophone.
I am sure...with a small amount of tact, it would be very easy to get Mr Honker to walk out of your fantastic shop a very happy man.

My Kind Regards to all.

ManEast
 
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