Saxophones Thoughts on yani alto 992

[Dingding]

Good evening everyone

My son has been beavering away on his sax and making great progress.

He has been playing for a couple of years now having 1:1 classical sax lessons, he is working on grade six. He has also just recently been having jazz lessons too which is enjoying and frustrating in equal measure. The frustration seems from 'how do I make sense of this improv' without any written music in front of me.

We were at Southbank over the weekend and had some time to kill as we there waiting to watch a gig at the jazz festival so we wandered over to sax.co.uk.
My son tried out a few alto saxophones including yam 62 and yani aw01 and aw02.He really liked the sound of the yanis and the look of the bronze aw02 yani, the more expensive one!

Anyway browsing on eBay I did spot a bronze yani alto albeit the older model
.
For sale : Yanagisawa A992 Bronze Alto Saxophone | eBay
Offers in the region of £1695

Could the forum please if this would make a good buy, I'm worried that I may be potentially purchasing a dud.

We would obviously go and try it out before shelling out hard earned cash!

My son currently plays a alto yam 23 which is great, but the yani horns he tried on Saturday had an altogether different sound which he and I both loved and was much easier to play.

Kind regards

Nasima

 

[Greg Strange]

Perhaps your son's sax teacher can assist with the purchase of the sax, i.e. maybe the teacher can go along with your son when he tries the sax out to check if the instrument has any problems / issues, etc. Can't really tell from photos if the sax has any defects.

Greg S.

 

[nigeld]

I’m not an expert, but I’m a bit suspicious that the laquer on the bell looks perfect but the laquer on the upper body has almost disappeared. My old Yanagisawa had lost some laquer but it was much more even than this. So I’m wondering if the lost laquer could be the result of a major repair.

May be one of the repairers can comment.

 

[Stephen Howard]

I’m not an expert, but I’m a bit suspicious that the laquer on the bell looks perfect but the laquer on the upper body has almost disappeared. My old Yanagisawa had lost some laquer but it was much more even than this. So I’m wondering if the lost laquer could be the result of a major repair.

Hard to say.
The lacquer loss looks rather uneven and spread out, which isn't typical of loss due to repairs.
Going solely on the photos I'd suggest this might be a "sitter's horn". If you watch a big band playing you'll see players holding their horns during long rests. The most common resting position is to lay the front of the bell across the legs and lay the right arm along the back of the main body tube, with the hand curled around the mid-top end.
Almost as common is resting the bottom bow on a leg and holding the horn upright with the right hand again curled around the top end of the horn.
This usually results in wear to the lacquer at the top end while leaving the lower end relatively untouched.

The most suspicious mark is that adjacent to the thumb hook - the lacquer wear looks very angular, almost as though a patch had been fitted.

Could be something...could be nothing, though I would say that Yani lacquer isn't the best out there.

 

[Dingding]

Thank you Greg, Nigel and Stephen for taking the time to read my message and responding.

I have asked the seller for more info regarding the history of the horn and more pictures.
It's interesting to hear that it maybe a sitters horn and the impact it can have as a consequence on the laquer.
Bearing in mind the comments so far, I think it maybe wise to steer clear of this one.
I did a further search on eBay and came across this horn

Yanagisawa Unlacquered Bronze Alto Saxophone A992 | eBay
Same model as above but unlacquered.

My son would definitely interested in this one as he was looking for a bronze unlacquered horn.
Unfortunately it's way out of our price range for the moment.
Just for interest is £2800 what you would expect to pay for this horn in this conditon.

Best wishes Nasima

 

[Colin the Bear]

Looks more like brass to my eyes. Isn't bronze a little more red/copper coloured?

 

[Dingding]

Hi Colin

When we were in sax.co.uk the bronze horn did look like brass from a distance.
Playing the brass alongside the bronze horn, their was a difference in tone not sure if it was £500 though?

 

[nigeld]

Yanagisawa Unlacquered Bronze Alto Saxophone A992 | eBay
Same model as above but unlacquered.

. . . Just for interest is £2800 what you would expect to pay for this horn in this conditon.

Too expensive, in my opinion. A brand new one costs £3710 from Howarth, and that's the new model.
Howarth also have a used A992 with an asking price of £2700, including an extra mouthpiece.
I would have thought £1600-£2500 would be the price range for a ready-to-play used one in a private sale, depending on condition.
The one on eBay looks fine, but it is not mint, and it is the old model, so I would expect it to be in the lower half of that range.
The seller does not say how old it is, and does not say explicitly whether it is playable, though he/she says it is in excellent condition, so I would expect that means it is.
It's not clear whether the Hiscox case is included - if so, the price might be a bit higher than otherwise, but unless it's very old, the original Yani case should be OK.

 

[Dingding]

Hi Nigel

Thanks for the reply.

When dealing with Howarth's how much would offer for the A992 if you were interested in buying it?

Regards

Nasima

 

[nigeld]

Hi Nigel

Thanks for the reply.

When dealing with Howarth's how much would offer for the A992 if you were interested in buying it?

Regards

Nasima

Looking at their second hand alto list, I would be more interested in the Selmer SA80 or one of the Yamahas, so I am not a good person to ask.
They are probably selling the Yanagisawa on behalf of someone, so we don’t know what the owner’s expectations are.
And there are no pictures, so we don’t know what its condition is.
Personally, I wouldn’t be inclined to pay more than £2000, but I doubt you will get it down that far.

 

[Dingding]

Thanks Nigel for your thoughts.

My son and I are going to pop into Howarth's to have a look at their used horns in the new year.
We didn't look at the Selmers in sax.co.uk as we thought they were out of our price range £3k plus.

Thanks everyone for your very helpful advice.
I'll update you all with our findings.

Kind regards

Nasima