Beginner Saxes Tell me about your first sax

[LostCircuits]

My first sax was a used Martin "the Indiana" that I bought at the tender age of 58 at the spur of the moment (never having played any wind instrument before). It was leaking like an old boat and you had to use a vise grip to get anything out of it but I didn't even know. It came with a Yamaha 4C with a chipped tip and yes, the guy who sold it to me ripped me off. But it sufficed until I found a Conn Shooting Star with only one leaking pad (Low C), which I managed to fix and which served me well until I found a piece of junk metal formerly known as Buescher The New Aristocrat that I used to teach myself working and fixing saxophones.
That one's still my favorite alto - on the rare occasions I play alto

 

[U CAN CALL ME AL]

My daughter asked me to order (not pay for) a saxophone as she wanted to play ‘ Pink Panther Theme ‘. She still can’t and hasn’t progressed far but still has the sax. I gave it a blow and was hooked. I bought the same one @Targa ,a Trevor James Artemis with a Yamaha mouthpiece. It didn’t keep it for long as it was purchased on approval and I returned it and received the cost minus a rental fee. I had meanwhile bought a Leblanc Rationel which I still have.
I have played my daughter’s sax several times since purchase and as it is still almost unplayed would be quite happy if it were the only one available To me. As the say the best sax is is the one you’re playing at the moment.

 

[saxyjt]

A YAS-275 almost exactly 10 years ago. My wife had started to play piano again after a long break, my oldest sons started piano and his brother played oboe at the conservatoire. So I thought, what about me? Being a jazz lover, I fancied playing at a younger age. I had a shop nearby and I occasionally went to admire the saxophones in their windows. I never really considered I could play until then. Browsing the net I read Yamahas were good starting horns. I had recently been made redundant, earning a good compensation and having time to spare, it was the ideal moment to give it a try.

I met the Saxophone teacher from the conservatoire who gave me some basic starting tips until I could join the next year. Wich I did.

In the meantime, I kept researching the subject and found a vintage sax for sale on Amazon. It was described as a Martin handcraft. I saw it, it wasn't a handcraft, but had handcraft engraved on it among others, therefore the sellers confusion. It was his dad's but he knew nothing about it. I bought it as I was able to play all notes from top to bottom. But it needed a good cleaning job at least. That became my first repair project.

That's my Super Rex made by Robert Drouet.

 

[ellinas]

My first sax a YTS-23. I started on tenor.
Still to date.... When I try a modern horn... I compare it to my YTS-23 ... Not many surpass it....

 

[eb424]

After a strange dream and a 50 year old man mid life crisis; I woke up with 2 thoughts

1. Ive never seen a live badger
2. Ive never played a saxophone.

I ended up having a holiday in Cornwall that incorporated a visit to a farm that had wild badgers and buying an Alto sax john Packer Blues 141... Great sax to start on....

 

[Targa]

After a strange dream and a 50 year old man mid life crisis; I woke up with 2 thoughts

1. Ive never seen a live badger
2. Ive never played a saxophone.

I ended up having a holiday in Cornwall that incorporated a visit to a farm that had wild badgers and buying an Alto sax john Packer Blues 141... Great sax to start on....

You should have dreamed you won the lottery.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I may have told this story before. When I was bout 18 I suddenly had a saxophone moment when I heard Ornette Coleman on the radio. He played an acrylic Grafton. Spookily, the next day I noticed an old Grafton for sale in the local music shop for £12. So I asked my mum if she would lend me the money. She offered to buy it for me if I gave up smoking, so I did and she bought me the saxophone.

Within a couple of hours wiggling my fingers around I thought I could play like Ornette, but ever since been realising that I can't.

 

[GCinCT]

After a strange dream and a 50 year old man mid life crisis; I woke up with 2 thoughts

1. Ive never seen a live badger
2. Ive never played a saxophone.

I ended up having a holiday in Cornwall that incorporated a visit to a farm that had wild badgers and buying an Alto sax john Packer Blues 141... Great sax to start on....

You crossed both off your list! That's great. I have yet to see a live badger, unless you count University of Wisconsin alumni.

 

[eb424]

You crossed both off your list! That's great. I have yet to see a live badger, unless you count University of Wisconsin alumni.

had to look that one up being in the UK... 😉

 

[DartmoorHedgehog]

1987
It was a Corton by Amati.
...
How much are they??? maybe £80? or even £80 2nd hand?

Well that's a coincidence. My first sax was a Corton-branded Amati alto, bought 2nd hand in 1986 or maybe early 1987 for £80 🙂

I bought it because I was asked to double on sax in a concert band I was playing clarinet in, and at the age of 17 or 18 it was pretty much the only affordable option. I still have it now - apart from replacing a few pads a year or so ago (which I did myself) it's been perfectly reliable all that time and I haven't felt the need to replace it with anything posher. It now regularly does (or did when we were allowed) rock gigs, where its robustness and lack of financial value are definitely in its favour.

I'm now a two-saxophone-owner having bought a baritone a few years ago, but the Corton remains the only alto I've owned.

 

[Damflask]

My first sax was a Grafton Alto I bought from a junk shop in 1979 I think?
I bought it as an ornament, because I thought it looked nice. I started to mess about on it, and eventually got hold of a Conn Transitional tenor. ( I know that now, I didn't at the time) and that got me hooked.

 

[dreadnet]

Trevor James The Horn Alto 1995-1996. Then Michael White Alto from 1997-1999.
Michael White Alto will be restored as a repair training project.

 

[CliveMA]

My first sax was a 1949 Selmer SBA Alto. My mother bought it for me as a high school graduation present in 1976. Mouthpiece was Brilhart Tonalin 4. I sold the package in 2020 to buy a Tenor.

I recently saw it for resale so here is a pic. The new owner had stripped it back to unlacquered.

 

[jonf]

I first played a couple of dodgy old Eastern European saxes at school, 40 years ago. I was studying for grade 8 on the clarinet, and frankly was becoming really bored with it, but as soon as I picked up the sax I knew it was the instrument for me. I hardly every play the clarinet now.

The first sax I owned was a Buescher Aristocrat 200 from the 1970s. I still have it, right next to where I am sitting now. My parents very kindly bought it for me, which was great of them as they didn't have a huge amount of money. To be honest, it's not a great sax, nothing like the quality of my older Bueschers. An object lesson in how to dilute the quality of a brand, until the product is a shadow of its former self.

The first sax I bought myself was another Buescher, a True Tone soprano. I bought it from a shop called Pro Brass, in Kentish Town, in 1985. I was just passing, and I looked in the window, which was full of saxes priced from £500 upwards. there was this soprano, priced at just £200, so I went in and bought it. I was a student at the time (Economics, at the LSE) and I couldn't resist. I later spoke to the shop owner who said he nearly sacked someone for selling the sax too cheap. I still have this sax as well.

Picking up on other comments on this thread, I have also seen a live badger. Years ago, I was at my wife's parents house for dinner. They lived in a huge Victorian house, with a big walled garden. The windows were floor to ceiling ones, and the curtains were open, although it was fairly dark. We were all pretty drunk, and suddenly I noticed a movement outside - it was an entire family of badgers trotting across the lawn.

 

[Targa]

We were all pretty drunk, and suddenly I noticed a movement outside - it was an entire family of badgers trotting across the lawn.

How drunk were you?

 

[rhysonsax]

My first saxophone was a Dearman New Super tenor that my parents spotted in the local paper in about 1977. The seller let us take it to be assessed by a pro saxophonist who ran a local pub and also by Peter Snowden a very well know repairer who live nearby. He looked at the Selmer metal mouthpiece in the case and then started picking away at the bite plate and saying "the glue they used had arsenic in it you know" (or maybe he said cyanide). He also told us that the Dearman was known as a "poor man's Conn" and was pretty good for its age. After that we had to buy it.

Then in about 1981 I spotted a Selmer MkVI tenor advertised in Exchange and Mart for £450 and went off in the train to see it with all that money burning a hole in my pocket. The seller was a pro player who had just upgraded to a Mk7 - I wonder whether he regretted it.

Rhys

 

[Ismo]

This question is easy 😉 because I have only one and it's YAS-280 made in Indonesia. I bought it in December 2019, but start "playing" it about a half a year ago. And in the end of July we bought a Trevor James the Horn (alto also) to my wife. Now we have fun together. We are not in same level, but it's not a problem. She has been singer in a band, but not played anything. I have some kind understanding of dots and can play easy tunes from them if I had heard the tune before.

 

[David Dorning]

It was a Friday evening in 2013 when Mrs D called me from Italy, halfway through a 4-week holiday to celebrate her retirement. She was having a very enjoyable time, and in response I felt obliged to say that I had been at work all week. After our conversation, and fortified by a couple of glasses of wine, I felt the need for some compensation, and on a whim I swayed over to the laptop and bought a Sonata alto on Ebay. I had been toying for some time with the idea that a gentleman aged 60 should own a saxophone (I still believe this to be true although I have discovered it is not a truth universal acknowledged). By the time Mrs D returned I was able to make some moderately acceptable sounds with it. 8 years on I have acquired a few more saxes which Mrs D tolerates with great fortitude, and our daughter is now the happy owner of that first Sonata alto.

 

[Tenor Viol]

As this thread has been revived... I told earlier about my first alto sax. I added a silver plated tenor a few years later, then changed that for a new model a few years later. I then bought a Yani soprano, then a secondhand Yani baritone B900, then switched the alto and tenor for used Yanis as well. So I know have an SATB set of Yanis....

Don't mention bass guitars....

 

[dreadnet]

Purchased a Yamaha YAS-25 last month😉