When you should upgrade your saxophone?
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2024
- Not sure whether to upgrade your student "beginner" sax to something better? Check out this video to learn how to upgrade and what to look for.
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IN THIS VIDEO:
So you started learning with a beginner sax, but now you’re making progress and want to move on to a more professional model….
Upgrading your sax is a confusing process. However, if you like most people got started with a basic entry level saxophone, then chances are you are ready to spread your wings and move onto a more advanced model.
But should you?
There are so many questions here apart from whether it’s right to upgrade your saxophone at all.
What “next step” saxophone should you look for? How will I know a more expensive saxophone is actually better?
Will I play better on a more expensive saxophone?
This video is an excerpt from our recent Q&A session for Sax School. We run these sessions every month for our Sax School members and answer questions they have submitted.
It’s another way that the team and I help our members make amazing progress on their saxophones.
This month one of the questions was about upgrading and how to go about it the right way.
Here’s what we discuss:
Should you even upgrade your sax?
What you should do BEFORE upgrading your saxophone
Why a more expensive saxophone MAY be better for you
How to choose your next saxophone.
….and more.
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Ive had a 10m for many years after playing a selmer but I like
the conn best cheers Nigel always enjoy your vids
Kevin
Cheers Kevin. The10mis a classic!
I agree with all that has been said. I upgraded from a good "beginner" to an "intermediate" after over a year and realizing that I would be sticking with the instrument. But the bigger factor is the mouthpiece and the bigger factor even beyond that is breath support, embouchure, tongue position. I know every saxophone player chases better sound and we are creatures of immediate gratification and even though the answer from all the pros is that the best way to get better is to practice (smart practicing not just noodling around), we still gravitate to gear (and I did but less so now). I would also add that cleaning saxophone after every single practice will keep pads in better condition. It only takes an extra 5 minutes tops so everybody has time to do it after a gig or practice! I play at least 2 hours a day and clean after every use and in over three years pads still sealing great and have not had to bring it in for leaks or repairs.
Great comments there George.
If you have $1250 put aside that you are going to get a new saxophone. Take that money, go to the shop. And get your pads changed. And while the got all the hardware apart tell to replace any springs or other hardware that might need replacing soon. For this example let say that came to $250. Now take the thousand you have left and buy an excellent mouthpiece. You will be happy-er. Now you have a saxophone you have already grown into. You know all it's little quarks. And it works flawlessly now. And you have the most important piece, the mouthpiece. Mouthpiece are expensive because they really, ARE, the sax. Put your focus into metal or hard-rubber. And how big of a baffle you want. A bigger baffle makes for deeper, richer low notes. But it also make it more difficult to play high notes. When I went to a #7 I could play notes I never could before. But it was also difficult to play high notes that I could play before. It is a total wake up on embouchure.
Thanks for your comments. Definitely the mouthpiece is the first thing to look at upgrading. Also, I do know plenty of pro sax players who still use a mid range sax.
I’ve had my YAS 23 since buying it new in 1981 - I love it, but I really want to upgrade. Mostly because the feel of the keys on pro horns is so decadent.
Wow that’s some great value for money on your YAS 23!
Good point on the mouthpiece, definitely.
I played for 6 years in the school system on a Chinese student horn until I upgraded to a Selmer SA80 SII in my junior year. It's different for everyone but it comes down to how much you play and how much you're willing to spend. Oddly enough, my favorite pro horns at the moment are a couple vintage Conns, 6M and 10M. Both I got for around 1700 combined, very cheap but can play as well as the modern pro horn that will run you 2 or 3k at least.
I have a Yamaha YAS 280 and have been playing it for just under 2 years now. For me I honestly don't see the need to upgrade for at least a couple more years.
Good advice about the importance of the mouthpiece, and to test play a sax before buying! I play alto, but was considering getting a tenor. At my local sax dealer I tested a nice student tenor, but even though I like the sound of the tenor, I don't have a feel for it, so it trying it convinced me that alto is my thing, and if I ever do get a tenor it would have to be an inexpensive horn, as it would something I play on the side.
Great to hear that Rob. You never really know till you try.
Hi, i have been playing for 18 months, how will i know when it’s time to upgrade ?
Hi Nigel I started with a Selmer M6, soon the Conn 10m, Super King 20, The Martin,Arampone
Followed. But by far the best built and easiest to play is my Andy Sheppard autograph tenor.
Concerning the alto, i've got the Yamaha 62 Purple logo(same as you), and a Selmer sba silver.
I started blowing on them and tried to learn music after when I retired at 66yrs.I got fascinated
by the differences in sound of all those saxes, that's why the population was growing.
I do play sometimes (now I am busy with Take five on the alto of course and I have your lessons as a guide with me. You are playing this piece great,,but to be honest ,nothing goes
above Paul Desmond.. His first note is so beautiful soft, you can nearly hear it.(forgive my primitive dutch-english) But a saxophone just standing there in my neighberhood gives me
more pleasure then a bouquet of flowers.
Your Dave Guardala has a fantastic sound for me (it is all personal) New York type I suppose?
They are very hard to get.
Love to play all kind of lessons,,but I have more hobbies and so my saxophones often have a day off and I just say hello to them..
Great to hear that Wouter. You have a nice collection of saxes there!
U gave me hope because i thought i started late... i am 45😉
These days even student models can be awesome. Like the Yamaha 280. I changed my Yamaha YAS 26 to Yanigasawa A901 because I could afford to. Purchased used for 1300 US. Hd it checked out and tweaked for no money really. It will last me for years. So much easier to play. As to mouthpieces, I feel the same way. A Yamaha mouthpiece may be "Ok" for beginners, but I have experimented a bit and settled on a Selmer Soloist on alto and a n Otto Link Tone Edge for tenor. Not expensive, but they suit me.
That’s great Stephen. the A901 is a good horn.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Began on a Selmer alto SA 80 Series II, went on to a Selmer tenor Series III and a soprano Series III. Should I upgrade? 𗀄𗀄
NO!
Time play a Yamaha custom z black alto. The later the horn the better the build. Superior parts etc.
I like the custom Z too - my soprano is this model.
8 years ago I bought a Selmer Super action 80, which was my first saxophone, however, having been playing the clarinet for years. Two years ago I came across a Selmer Mark VI at the loft of a friend of mine. The saxophone turned out to never been used. After a 500 USD overhaul, I wasn't able to tell the difference between the Super Action and the Mark VI. As a back up saxophone I have bought a brand new Conn Selmer Prelude TS700 for about 800 USD. Once again, I can't tell the difference between the Prelude and the Mark VI. So what do you get when buying a "professional" saxophone?
Thanks for sharing this Hans. You are lucky to have found a MKVI in “unused” condition! The sound of a sax is personal. Perhaps a modern horn suits you better?
Thank you for great and useful videos. I think, like others are saying, the sound is created by the mouthpiece, the reed and the player. As long as the saxophone is in good condition, it doesn’t matter what saxophone it is. Charlie Parker sounds like Charlie Parker never mind the saxophone, plastic or metal, one player said. So what do you get for another 5000 USD over my 500 USD Prelude?
so I want to switch to tenor sax from alto and my band director wont let me switch because im too good. Im not learning anything from people in my section because im the best in my section. theres only 2 tenors in our band and like 8 altos
Sorry to hear that Roni. Perhaps you need to find some new alto challenges outside of your band?
😍😍😍😍🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔
After a few years on a school issued Bundy, my parents scrimped and saved and bought me a Selmer Mk VII (I thought I was getting a Mk6, but apparently they stopped making them when I got mine). It was night and day. I got reasonably good and about 80% of that was from pure hard work, but most of the rest was because I had a good horn. Sometimes my peers would let me play on their horns, usually a Bundy or some other monstrosity, and there is a very good reason why there were not first chair, and it was mostly because they had horrible horns. Changing the mouth piece would not have fixed what they had.
People say the newer student horns are better than back in the 70's and I can believe that, but I would recommend getting a professional horn before changing mouth pieces because intonation, articulation of the keys, and the sound are so much more inspiring for the player. It's hard to make great changes with a mouth piece when your horn sounds like junk, leaks, and clacks and clangs.
If you are serious about playing well, buy the best horn you can as early as you can. That will help you get better if you already have the drive and discipline to practice, practice, practice. Then as you develop in skill, start fiddling with the mouthpiece. Changing mouthpieces is easy. You're likely only going to have one horn. Changing the mouth piece on a Bundy is like lipstick on a pig.
Now, if you're not the sort that will practice at least an hour every day and take private lessons and be active in bands, then just buy anything and be happy, because it won't really matter what you play because you won't be very good. But if you are serious, then invest in as serious a horn as you can afford.
I believe you. I still have my old Yamaha 23, but I can still remember the joy of playing my friend’s Mark VII in high school. I loved how the keys felt to play (not the positioning, but that was probably just due to unfamiliar positioning), and I loved how I sounds on that horn. I really want to upgrade, but there’s nowhere around here to try them out, and there are too many options to know what to buy.
I dont need to upgrade, I've got a King Super 20.
nice!
I also have a King Super 20 and love it.
Important note, Nigel: it is VERY wrong to support Chinese knockoffs. Why buy knockoffs & copies of established professional woodwind manufacturers, when for many decades, in the Czech Republic, a respectable woodwind instrument manufacturer makes affordable yet excellent student & intermediate instruments? Amati Denak was established in Kraslice before the WW2. They use own production methods for generations, not stealing anyone's patents like the Chinese do these days. Please inform your students about them. It is lack of better insight that the webshops from UK & USA ignore these, but rather opt for Chinese knockoffs. → www.amati.cz/en/instruments
This information on the Czech manufacturered horns is priceless.