Your YTS 23 is, I'm sure, a good horn, but a trainer horn at best. It won't have near the feel, balance or sound of the YTS 62, 61 or any of the custom yamaha models out now. Or, obviously, of the horn you just bought.
Yanagisawa, so the story goes, was a maker and repairer of Japanese instruments for decades prior to WWII, handling stuff like signal horns, ceremonial horns and trumpets. Some of that manufacturing capacity was sold in the early 50s and supposedly became the basis for Yamaha.
Meanwhile, Yani, in the early 50s got interested in saxophones, apparently due somewhat to the influence of the American soldiers who were stationed all over Japan after the war. The first horns were copies of existing horns. The Yani A-4 and A-5 horns, which appeared in the early 60s supposedly were reverse engineered from Selmer pro horns of the time, the Mark VI and Super Balanced Action.
I have an A-4 alto, stenciled as an "astro", which is a tremendous horn, although the keywork is thoroughly worn out. It's heavy and just wails. There's a pic of it somewhere on this site.
Yani kept improving things and finally started engraving their own name on all their horns long about the time of the 800/880 models. These are tremendous pro horns and are highly sought after by some. The 900/901/990 et al horns are a continuing upgrade from them.
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