EPILOGUE POST
I appreciate everyone who recommended my biz, thank you all. Just wanna follow up with where all of this ended up, and make a few observations if you don't mind.
The quoted list of saxes the OP posted above were my offerings, my descriptions. This biz can be fun and rewarding at times, for me particularly in two ways:
1) taking an old horn which has been either neglected or simply ignored, or maybe even played half to death...and resuscitating it back to top playing form then getting it back out into player curculation. Emotionally, nothing better than giving a refurbed horn its first playtest after I am 80% done with it and hearing it sing, and feeling its abilities returned to it.
2) something which has probably hurt me badly over the years, financially: my insistence on offering horns which are affordable. I have little interest in flipping grails. This has led me to learn a lot about what exactly is under the hood of many models people will dismiss almost immediately as not worth it. Especially when over the years I see other owners of the model posting how happy they are with it...this can multiply until a model which, when I first started doing this 17 years ago, had no reputation or a bad one, online (based mostly on hearsay or the failure to connect the fact that maybe that old horn played sucky because it hadn't been serviced in 25 years, not because the model was intrinsically poor)...today has a pretty solid reputation as a wise buy (Conn 16M, Martin Indiana, Beaugnier-made horns, Holtons just a few off the top of my head which have achieved the respect they did not once garner, or discovering that most Jupiters can go 15 rounds with most Yamahas, and discovering that Allora intermediate models are actually quite solid...the list goes on....).
On the flip side, there are things which sorta suck the energy out of me in this biz...but they are part of the biz. The first is
1) Tire-kickers...people who inquire , seemingly seriously, but are only gathering info with no intention, from the get-go of proceeding with any purchase. Right when it seems like the deal is close, they either vanish with no trace or say "great thanks, I don't have the money but maybe I'll get back to you when I do". If it is a short email relationship, easier to let roll off, But of it is one which becomes protracted, litany of questions, repeated requests for more detailed photos, etc,,,now that is actually utilizing some significant time and effort for me, being a one-man shop. Unfortunately, such was the case with the inquirer here, a thread I didn't realize existed until I stumbled across it yesterday.
Just b#tching, really....this stuff comes with the job... but I gotta say it has become way more prevalent than it was like 8 or 9 years ago. He alone is not guilty of this, as I said, it has become pretty common these days...where used to be people would asterisk their messages with "just to let you know, I am just starting to gather info" or the like.
2) comments/suggestions indvertently dismissing a model/brand which someone has never even held in their hands, and a model which doesn't have a questionable online rep, really.
I was discussing with the inquirer via email these 4 horns and he would come back nixing one or the other from the list. Fair enough, I figured he was getting info from somewhere.
But given his (ostensible) price constraints, he nixed the TWO most VIABLE options for acquiring a really GOOD horn for his budget...the Carnegie and the Buffet 100. Everyone tosses Jupiters (foolishly) so that wasn't a big surprise (albeit not a wise dismissal).
But let me just mention this for posterity:
The Eastman/Giard is a pro horn, period. But the Buffet 100...isn't that far behind it. To the degree where a respectable "leaving beginner heading towards intermediate" player, looking for a more serious horn than a default suggested student model.... if playtesting the two side by side...probably would not be able to conclude one is 'better' than the other.
That's how close they are.
They'd probably be able to identify aspects of one they prefer to the other, but in a blindfold, this would be a fairly competitive race.
So I guess I'd ask....folks...please if you have the inclination to do that, and it's always tempting....consider not doing it.
This stuff is written in black and white... and 100 other people over the next 10 years of forum surfing can stumble upon it and have their opinions colored by it...so if that is the reality, at least have the opinion colored by someone who played the model. (I admit I am being cranky here, sorry).
In instances where I have not actually held a model in question, the most critical I can ever be about it is "I haven't had experience with it but other reports here regarding it are spotty/mediocre/leaning positive/pretty dismal"....etc... you get the drift....
Thx
(bottom of page)
