Saxophones Which sax (again)

raddy

Member
17
Fuirts - hello all!

My son has been asked to take up the saxophone to complement his clarinet playing. He wanst to get into a jazz ensemble but has been told for the particular ensemble he wants to join he needs sax.

Anyhow, after reading loads of reviews we have narrowed our choice iof his furts sax to one of these:
BAUHAUS WALSTEIN AS-Y ALTO SAXOPHONE
BAUHAUS WALSTEIN AS-P BRONZE BODIED ALTO SAX
BAUHAUS WALSTEIN AS-YD ALTO SAXOPHONE

I really like the sound of the AS-P - just that we're not sure which to go for.

Also, do you think it would be worth investing in a new mouthpiece at some point. he plays a hanson clarinet and got a Vandoren 5RV mouthpiece that came with it and the sound and tone was far superior to any other clarinet he'd played before?

Anyway, look forward to your thoughts and advice

By the way, I always wanted him to play saxophone and must admit when he took up the clarinet, as well as not really knowing what one looked like, I had no idea it could lead to him playing the sax.
 
Big welcome from me.

If that's your short list, get him to play all of them, check for differences in playability - shouldn't b much, if any. Then pick the best sounding.... But be aware that sound is really dependant on mouthpiece selection. And there are hundreds to pick from. go for playability as a first priority.

On the clarinet, it's worth experimenting, but if it plays well, sounds good and is in tune throughout the range, no need to worry.
 
Hi, I'm far from an authority but when I went threw my selection process 5-6 months ago one of my tenor choices was the BW pro and know people recommended binning the supplied m/piece and starting with a Yamaha 4c (as I was a complete beginer ), that's exactly what I did and now I'm using my Yanagisawa N06 ebonite with the occasional blast on my other Yanagisawa metal.
So based on advise I'm moving in the right direction.

Good luck.

Lee.
 
Excellent, and economical, alto sax mouthpieces that I have tested and recommend highly are:

1. Runyon 22 - Charlie Parkers original mouthpiece and still available at about £30. (East Coast Wind)
2. Bari Esprit II - been available since 2011 and quite superb (renders a Yamaha 4C irrelevant). Only £14. (Ackerman Music)
3. Clark Fobes Debut - one of the best beginner mouthpieces in the US - costs £36. (Howarth)
4. Windcraft Etude Alto - superb mouthpiece for jazz, etc. Only £49.95. (Dawkes)

I would say that they are 4 of the best under £100 and all are suitable for Jazz.
Kind regards
Tom
 
Hi oldpuffer
thanks for that
Just spoke to Mark at Hanson's and he has pointed us toward the RSA-5. Son's clarinet is due for a service next month so, as it's not too far away, we'll take the clarinet up and take a look at the saxes.
DS loves his Hansen (with the Vandoren 5RV), everyone comments on the sound and the service ids great too (sound like an advert now 🙂 )
 
This is how it starts. First you get the clarinet, and you enjoy it, but it's not a saxophone, so you get an alto, not too big, similar sort of pitch to the clarinet and you're happy for a while. Then you feel you need a tenor to get that lugubrious mellow sound that you can't get down to on alto. It's all sensible and logical and that's it for a while, you're happy and content, but then you see a sale at the local shop and they've got a Baritone in the window with a huge discount...now only the soprano to go. Then you hear a bass and find out there's a bigger one too. Saxophones are habit forming.

I can recommend the Gear4music alto. I don't know how well it will last. I've had mine a couple of months and it's playing fine. It's a robust instrument with a responsive action and all the knobs and levers are in the right place. Decent hard case too.

The mouthpiece combined with embouchure makes most of the sound quality. So if he's getting a good sound on the clarinet I'd stick with the same mouthpiece for alto. Plenty of time to experiment once he gets going.
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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