Pete's Yani Page Rebuild #2: Write-Ups

pete

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
Last edited by a moderator:
Can I choose both? :D

Bigger is definitely something I'd like and I'd like big shots of both sides of the whole horn. That's the only complaint I've ever had with Quinn's ads on eBay: lots of shots are great, but I want big, detailed pics of the whole horn.

IIRC, doctorsax.biz has a Vito 600 stencil. I don't remember if it's an alto or tenor.

============

Edit: Oooh. Faked me out. Same horn.
 
... Anyhow, one of the things I'll try to do is some feature comparison of the various Yanis. That's probably going to take as long as throwing together the rest of the page will. I have seen a lot of posts asking for that.
 
Because I'm a believer in "publish or perish" -- well, this week at least -- I've posted a Yani page on my website. It just has stuff about the 3 Series. All the links work, at least :).

Oh. If anyone out there has pre-99xx series catalogs or pricing info that they could share, please do. That'd be stuff older than 1995.
 
I've now posted the 4 Series and 5 Series instruments, as well as updating my menu bar of links, so I've deleted my above posts about 'em.

What I'm planning on, because I have a bazillion picture links I'm coming across, is to finish up the text stuff and post a couple picture links when I do that. After the model list is complete, I'll then try to grab some more pics.

Let's see:

3 Series
5 Series
4 Series
2 Series
6 Series
500 Series
600 Series
7 Series (If I can find one. The first sterling silver horns. In other words, the "7" in your 9937.)
800 Series
880 Series
900 Series
901 Series
990 Series
991 Series
992 Series
993x Series
WO Series

... And, of course, there are the u (mu) variants that started (I think) in the 900 Series.

==========

EDIT: there's also an 80, 90, and 2100 model I came across today.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've played them well during my days in the 1970s, but I couldn't tell you dreck from Shinola about them other than the neck angle on the baritone suited rock and R&B playing quite well. I could get that horn cantilevered out in front of me in the best of horn line styles back in the day.

Sadly, I moved on to the Selmer line. I've never liked the hold of a Selmer baritone, but there was that lovely little finger rocker that I miss ever so much to this day. Sigh...
 
Last edited:
6 & 7 Series. That was a tad painful.

I was able to find probably a dozen each of the 6 Series sopranos and baritones, but I only have one alto and one tenor that I have multiple pics of -- and one lone sopranino pic. A lot of folks think that their 500 Series or Dorado 600 horns are 6 Series. I can understand the confusion for either horn, really: Yanagisawa stopped stamping model numbers on some horns and some folks would make the easy leap from "Dorado 600" to "6 Series," regardless of a big "5" stamped near the serial number -- not to mention that most Yanis look like ... Yanis.

(This also means that if you have pics, please send me some.)

I've also got some additional stuff regarding the SN-600 and a lot of stuff about introduction dates, too. That took a while to straighten out.
 
I decided that I was startiing to lag a bit in actual photos, so I added some. A hundred or so horns.

Notes:
* If the 901 II isn't in stores yet, it will be soon. It's in Japan.
* I came across a few 901 Special models. I haven't a clue what's special about them, except "Special" is engraved on 'em.
* I came across a B-800 bari. There aren't supposed to be B-800s. Just like there aren't supposed to be Selmer Mark VII baris. I'll keep my eyes open for an 880 or 900, too.
* I found a website that compares the 800 to the 900 or 901. I'm gonna include that.
* I've come across enough Yanis (ya think???) to tell you that keywork design is highly variable, possibly even more than on Keilwerths. This is true even on the "non-pro" series, the 500.
* I need to find better pictures of the PGP and bronze horns that make them look something other than "mildly discolored lacquer."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Two other limited horns. There were "Limited" horns around 1999/2000 and I've found the T-9930 BSB/Z. I'm sure there will be more!
 
I found a really nice sales website with a lot of great Yanagisawas and I'm currently wading through it. It's helping me a lot with getting a timeline a bit more firm -- after I figured out how they're doing the serial numbers, that is. They also have a few models and finishes I wasn't aware of and hadn't seen mentioned elsewhere.

For whatever reason, while they have an English version of their website, it a) doesn't work in Firefox (I get a blank page) and b) has only about 1/10th the amount of horns as on their Japanese page.

I've gotta say that I love calling a sax mute a "Chibi-Decibel." As I've mentioned a few times, I do watch anime -- (predominately) Japanese animation -- and I know what the "Chibi" style animation is.

Oh. They also have an Inderbinen alto for a shade under $6700 (680,000 Yen). That's only $4700 off list (8380 Euros). You can fly two from the US to Japan, round trip, and stay at a good hotel for a couple nights for $4700. They also have a platinum plated Selmer S80 II ....
 
Added 38 more horns.

As a point of interest, there's a 9930, 9932, 9933, 9935, and 9937. What happened to the other numbers (9931, 9934, 9936)?
 
800 page posted.

I'm stopping at this point because I really need to create a feature comparison page between the 6, 800, 880, and -- possibly -- the 500. I'm seeing way too much conflicting stuff about these models, not to mention the black hole of Yanagisawa serial numbers (like this horn, which has a 6 digit serial number and I think is really an A-6, not an A-800)
 
I knew I forgot something.

* I updated all the Yanagisawa pages on the main website (i.e. woodwindforum.com) to say that there's updated Yani information
* There's a website I've mentioned before -- and recommend you visit -- that's called Luthier Vents. The webmaster there has a page comparing the 800 and 900 Series horns ... and he tries to say that if you have serial number X, it must be a model Y. As mentioned above, that doesn't work with Yanagasawas, in general, and really doesn't work for horns made from about 1977 to 1990. I posted a comment on his website. I don't know if I'll get published. It's a French-language website ....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom