Where to shop

[Tenor Sax]

Hello All.

The Midlands offer little in good Sax shops. I will be visiting my Sister-in-law over the next couple of days. She Lives north of London.

It is my intension to visit SAX.CO. This will be a bit of a trek but I need to try as many mouthpieces as possible. Are there any closer and equally helpful alternatives?

 

[helena]

Hi Chris

I am not sure how North of London you are......I love Wood wind and reed in Cambridge - I spent 2 1/2 hours in there on Saturday morning just before Christmas, great service, very helpful, left me in a practice room with 7 tenor saxes to play with, and left me to play. They don't have much on show - but an Alladin's cave behind the scenes. And a good selection of music as well.

happy shopping!
Helen

 

[dooce]

I know not everyone on this site likes his attitude, and I do sympathise, but Roger at Allegro in Oxford knows a hell of a lot. Trouble is, he never lets you forget it.......

However, he took a whole afternoon just to let me play around with mouthpieces and reeds till I found a set-up I was happy with. Which just turned out to be the combination he had recommended at the start of the session..........

 

[griff136]

Howarths "chiltern street" nr baker street tube.
always have a good selection of mouthpieces, you can try in store -select 3, leave your credit card details and take em away on approval.

 

[tengu01]

Macaris - Charing Cross Road: Mostly a guitar shop but they do have some interesting saxes in the window and some interesting mouthpieces at the desk. If you're passing through the central London area, it may be worth passing through to have a look.

Alternatively, in the North London area, I have heard of (but never been to visit) Don Mackrills in Edgeware (www.donmack.com) and they seem to have a healthy stock of stuff to play around with.

 

[rhysonsax]

Depending on how far North of London you will be, there is John Myatt's shop in Hitchin - . Always good stuff there.

http://www.myatt.co.uk/

Less of a trek than sax.co.uk would be around to Maidenhead, where Dawkes is also very good.

http://www.dawkes.co.uk/

Good luck

Rhys

 

[Jules]

failing that-I'll put the kettle on!

 

[Bobby G]

[No message]

 

[Pete Thomas]

I don't think you'll regret making the schlep to sax.co.uk, nachoman's tea notwithstanding.

 

[Bobby G]

griff136 wrote:
Howarths "chiltern street" nr baker street tube.
always have a good selection of mouthpieces, you can try in store -select 3, leave your credit card details and take em away on approval.

I was in Howarth's a couple of weeks ago, they have a 'bargain bucket' with quite a few mouthpieces

 

[Tenor Sax]

Thank you all for your input and suggestions.

I have been to John Myatt's in the past. Always worth the drive when needing to pick up items quickly.

 

[jonf]

You won't regret going to sax.co.uk. You just have to look at the front page of their website to see the colossal range of stock. I've never seen anywhere that has their range of gear.

The people who work there are by and large OK too. 😉

I'm lucky, it's actually my nearest decent music shop, about 30 minutes by car, or say 15 by bike but if you're from further afield and happen to be in the South East, it's well worth making the effort to get there. Worth remembering for those coming through London that it's a short walk from the nearest station, as well.

 

[Tenor Sax]

nachoman wrote:
failing that-I'll put the kettle on!

I opted for the Berg Larsen Grained Ebonite as tested and thanks to Julian from Sax.Co. Again thank you for your help Julian, and the tea was worth the wait

Downside. To pacify the wife I allowed her to go shopping whilst I ogled and dreamed of how much I would like to buy. She returned at 4.50pm having spent what was put aside for me. My 9 year old dropped her Nintendo DS, breaking the hinge to the lid. Any other part may have been repairable.

To add insult to injury. Rather than shop around and buy the Nintendo on its own they purchased the B#*@+ complete package with Charger and all the other gubbing we already had. I HAVE to Wait until April now.

 

[david_tannahill]

WWR in cambridge is really sweet just like Helen said. It is only open in the morning on a Saturday and not at all on Monday, However, it is open late on a Tuesday.

 

[david_tannahill]

Helen, what tenors did you try? What did you like?

 

[Tenor Sax]

David Tannahill wrote:
WWR in cambridge is really sweet just like Helen said. It is only open in the morning on a Saturday and not at all on Monday, However, it is open late on a Tuesday.

Thank you for your suggestion David I will keep them on record.

Sax.co are good in all areas (service, friendly, stock) Having spent time and effort with me I will be ordering from them online.

 

[helena]

I tried....
cannonball
Muriat
Selmer (cannot remember which one)
Yamaha

I cannot remember which ones they all were - we deliberately asked that I didn't know - I wanted to make a choice based on my playing preference rather than brand preference. Eventually I went for the keilwprth shadow.
and wwr will do deals - plus I am "paying" for being there for hours testing them all out - I couldn't just leave after having great service to make some phone calls to a get a slightly better price.

I would like to go to sax.co.uk one day - when it's time for my soprano sax.....

 

[david_tannahill]

Thanks Helen. Was it Thomas who dealt with you? I might be after a new alto if a new job works out. Was it the black Keilwerth it looks really nice!

 

[helena]

yes it was thomas - very patient...and yes to teh shadow - it is so good - I am now thinking of a new mouthpiece though....
and good luck with the new job (always good to have a saving target...)

 

[david_tannahill]

Hi Helen, I tried out a shadow alto at the weekend- it was very nice. Surprisingly lighter in weight than I expected! It played beautifully all they way down to bottom Bb and could play loud. I also played a ref54 which was very nice too especially in the high register, but lower down I had more trouble making it speak. Interestingly, I found the left hand stretch to bottom Bb quite hard on the Slemer c.f. the Keilwerth, which is odd as I had heard that Keilwerths are better for bigger hands?