I`ve got a selmer super action serie 2 sop sax and it feels great when playing the high registers.But when i go to the lower registers , it starts to sound like an oboe.Is it supposed to be that way?It sure sounds horrible .... wad should i do?

Is it all right if i fix a baritone selmer C* mouthpiece into a yanagisawa intermediate brand model baritone? Well, it sounded deeper and more pleasant but is it advisable to do this kind of mix `n` match?

A good soprano should sound consistent through the range. There must be some adjustment problem if it is different. The oboe sound can be made more or less by different mouthpieces, but it is always a little there. Some sopranos tend to have more of an oboe sound than others. Sopranos tend to be the most difficult sax to control, so you need to have more practice to get the control.

On the other hand, a soprano has a great sound and more and more wind ensemble pieces are being written with soprano features because of the unique, "eerie", sound.

hey guys,
im a 15 year old aussie wanting to start alto sax, probably gonna have to buy it myself so it cant be expensive. Just wondering if ne anyone had heard of the brand "Xing Hai", i no its made in china but does ne1 know if it would be ok for a beginners without something falling apart.
thanx

Hi, Emily:
The worst thing that you could do when starting out is playing/learning on a sub-par instrument. Comb the music shops, classifieds and Ebay for a used Yamaha YAS-23. I am 33 and still have mine from 1986. I use a couple of different mouthpieces and a soft, tenor sax reed on it and get a beautiful sound. It is one of the EASIEST in your hands and if anything were to happen to it (although, they are TOUGH), you can rest assured that a sax repairman can find the parts as that model is still being made. Avoid the obsolete 21 series as some parts are not made by Yamaha anymore.
I`ve seen used YAS-23`s on Ebay for as low as $200. That`s a steal for something that will give you great service for many, many years to come. I hope my 2 1/2 year old will want to play it someday!

Personally, I would get the Jean Baptiste JB600TSL Tenor sax (which I have. It`s a professional model, and I`m only a feshman in high school!!!) I also suggest for the beginner the Yamaha YAS23 (which I also have!) Don`t forget Conn and other vintage brands!!

Just think in your money, from 600 USD you will start to find something interesting

I bought a Schill curved soprano from Ebay, and found that the silver horn plays pretty well. I`ve tuned it as close as I can to a Korg electronic tuner, and the intonation, like most curved sopranos, takes a bit to get used to and correct the notes that tend to push the limits of intonation.
The major problem I had, was that the left hand pinky keys are at quite an extreme angle, and tend to throw the hand position out of alignment, but one can get used to it after playing it for awhile. The Yanigasawa company makes a very good curved horn, and is enjoyable to play, but for a much more reasonable price, the Schill make a good substitute. My next investment is a soprillo sax by B. Eppelsheim!

for your 1st instrument i would recomend a yamaha YAS-23 they are fairly good instruments good quality etc and i played my YAS-23 i used to have up to grade 7,

it makes no difference what brand mouthpiece you put on a sax just make sure you try it out on your instrument before you buy it

ok i own a king 613 "student sax" it has really thick metal. it fell off my neckstrap onto the corner of a concrete slab and ended up with a really shallow dent. and it still plays great.

also people who are starting out sax, try a vintage sax for like 100 dollars i know you get what you pay for, but my king can be found in decent condition for like $80 and rentals will cost more in a few weeks. those luck to be in school try a school intrument for free b4 committing

and i wouldn`t trust any "new" nstruments for less than 1000 on ebay. because the seller has to be making a profit and new instruments in real music stores cost like $5000...

oh ya congrats for reading all those posts boy does it take a while

oh ya my sax on EBAY costs about $80 not in stores

remember vintage!

hi everyone, first i`d just like to say this forum has been a tremendous help and thank you all! i would like to ask about a couple of brands sold at a music store close to my home that i could get an alto sax. i currently play clarinet but in my high school band but i would like to learn to play the saxaphone and i`m looking for a quality instrument even if i have to pay a little more. i was wondering about a jupiter or monique brands i`ve seen monique mentioned here on being a great instrument, and also a pain in the neck. but jupiter has not been mentioned, does anyone know anything about the quality of this brand? if so, please post here or email me
thanks so much!
megan

Jupiter saxes are, generally, OK student saxes. They are not great, but it is OK for a beginning student. It has two downsides. The first is that, if you continue to play the sax, you will want to get a better horn. The second is that, like a lot of cars, when you walk out of the music shop, the value goes way down.

You are, almost always, better off purchasing a good brand (Selmer, Yani, Kielwerth, Yamaha) used sax that is in relatively good condition than buying a new secondary brand. You can get a used student sax with a good brand name for what a new Jupiter would cost. The brand name student sax will, probably, play and sound better and you may play it for an extra year before you move to a higher quality. If you take care of it, you can- probably- sell it for about what you paid.

I was looking for a saxophone on e-bay about a year ago and came across Helmke. I had never heard of them before so I did and internet search on them and came up with this forum. People in this forum seem to be happy with them but I had heard some scary stories so I avoided them.
I received a Yamaha YAS-23 for Christmas that year and I love it! I would recomend this sax to anyone. I play my sax in the 8th grade band and the Jazz band at my school. Two thumbs up.