Has anyone had any experience or know the quality of E.M. Winston and Maestro tenor saxes? E.M. Winston does have a website, but I haven`t found one for Maestro.

Wow, this horn just blew me away. When I got the horn it was beautiful. But who cares about the look right? The sound is gorgeous a little warming up and the sax will work wonders. Remember the sopranos are the hardest saxophones to tune and this horn is not bad. It took me about less than a minute to find close to near perfect pitch. I have had the model for two weeks now and no problems yet. i can play "My Favorite Things" easily without and rollovers or sqeaks. Hope this helped.

I bought a alto sax of the brand cleveland is this sax any good

The Cleveland model was made by King (based in Cleveland) in the 30`s and 40`s. It was considered a "student" sax.

I recently bought a Monique Tenor saxophone off of Ebay and the other day I found that someone bent my goose neck and now I`m trying to figure out where I can get a replacement goose neck. Does anyone know where I can get a new one? Please reply, I need one as soon as possible

get a yani or yamaha or Selmer 54 if u can afford it

wot u pay for is wot u get

I bought a Helmke soprano on ebay, a nickle plated curly. It was crude in some details. For example: grinder marks were visible on the male end of the neck. The mouthpice that came with it was really just a mouthpiece shaped piece of plastic. I replaced ir with a real mouthpiece.
Nontheless, it played easily and sounded great. I am now sorry I sold it.

I also have experience with Lafayette, Laurel and Bestler Sopranos among the cheap brands from unknown makers. I am not fond of the Laurel. The Lafayette has 100,000 miles on it and still sounds good with a good mouthpiece. It is mechanically simple and I have been able to keep it working with no trips to the repair shop. I can take it apart, clean everything and have it back together in about 90 minutes.
The Bestler has a deep rich tone with a decent mouthpiece. It is heavy and sturdy. Just as with the Helmke I mentioned previously there are grinder marks on the necks. The tablature is modern and more complicated than the Lafayette. At this point I don`t know if that is a plus or a minus. There may be some advantage to the complexity that I don`t know how to exploit.

<drum roll>......
How do you differentiate between a Chinese Monique and a Taiwanese Monique, I have a silver satin Tenor Monique and I`ve poured over it with a fine tooth comb and it doesn`t say where it`s made in, except for a label that says "French Engineered" and a serial number.

I have played a lot of off brands of saxophones. Some of them are good. It is a matter of luck rather than brand as to if they are good or not. My tactic most recently is to buy American made instruments that have suffered abuse. I know an honest repair person. He rebuilds them. They are not flashy. My interest is how easy they play not how pretty they are. The cost works out to be the same. This site is a good source of opinion about the American Brands. If you watch ebay closely you will be able to find an American classic for under $200. The repair will be about $150 to $200 and may be as low as $30 or $40.
Buy several and resell all but the best one. Get a real mouthpiece. Use real reeds and keep everything real clean. You will have a good time.

Does anyone know about the brand Anaxa? I have a daughter and she wants one. The price is good, but only if it lasts. Please e-mail me with any info, Thanks. Lee...leewlzz@netscape.net

Hi...I love the posts, they are so informative. I had thought about purchasing a soprano sax for my son on EBAY...but after reading all the postings about different brands, I think I will have my son try out different brands at our local music store. He currently has a tenor... a vintage 1934 Martin Handcraft Imperial silver finish low pitch horn that we purchased for 525.00 and it sounds absolutely amazing...smoooth like butter. We have found a 1927 Conn New Wonder that is gold plated---30% of finish is worn for 800.00. It has extremely quick action,and plays mellower than his current Accent Soprano professional series does... was curious about the Monique brand, saw a green one on EBAY that would be so cool for my redheaded son, but I have not found a home page for Monique, so I will take the advice of a post-er...don`t buy unless they have a homepage...thanks for listening.

I think that you have done well. There are a lot of 50-75 year old saxes out there which are wonderful sounding instruments and can be had for low prices. If you care for them, they have many more years of playing.

If you listen to those old recordings of Charlie Parker, Paul Gonsalves, Johnny Hodges, Jimmy Dorsey, Coleman Hawkins and the great players of the 20`s, 30`s and 40`s- they did not play the new saxes that are available today.

I just bought a monique alto and I love it. I`m experienced enough to know what a good sax is--I played all the way through junior high, high school, and college, and even did a little pro work. I haven`t personally tried a wide array of saxophones. I started on a Yamaha YAS-23 and later moved up to a YAS-52. I`ve also tried out friends` horns as they got them--Selmer Super Action 80, Buffet, even a Bundy II (yeah, I know, that`s a piece of crap student horn). I liked the super action 80, but it seemed really plain vanilla--no personality at all, a good overall, do-everything horn. The buffet is great. That`s my sister`s horn, and it sings beautifully. Of course the Bundy sounded as bad as it looked.

I`d never heard of or tried a Monique before I bought it, but it`s better than my YAS-52! The intonation is perfect. When I got it, I wasn`t so sure--some of the notes were really hard to hit, so I got out my Yamaha to compare and realized I was just out of practice. After playing them both for a while I found that the Monique was more accurate pitch-wise than my Yamaha. The keys feel about the same.

The reason I bought the Monique was that I`ve always wanted a silver-plated saxophone, and here I was able to get the saxophone of my dreams for not very much money. And it`s turned out to be just that. It`s a beautiful instrument. The silver plate gives it a slightly brighter tone than my YAS-52, but it`s also heavier, so it`s really not that much different.

I`ve heard a lot of people talk trash about the Monique. It took me three mouthpieces and 4 reeds to find the right combination, but once I found it, I was in love. So don`t judge it too quickly.

And if you`re interested in my comparison on the other horns, I`d say I`d put the super action 80 above my YAS-52, but only for the reason that my YAS-52 has a high A that`s ever so slightly sharp, and the Selmer didn`t. So I`d put Monique first on my list, then the Selmer, then the Yamaha. (Not enough experience to tell about the Buffet, and I would never buy a Bundy, even for a student!)

Good luck!

The thing about Moniques is that they are made in factories in China and somewhere else(Taiwan?) Most china factories make crap Moniques; hince the bad reputation. Most of the factories in Taiwan make really good horns; hince the good review above. Hopefully this will help clear things up. So if you buy a Monique, its best to play it first, but there is a dealer on Ebay who sales good ones; he test plays them and makes small adjustments, or sends them back.
!Wildband!