Recent Haul. Not quite sure why I got such a good deal.

JfW

JfW

An unrelated excursion brought me close to a nearby franchise of a regional second-hand dealer of musical gear. After brief negotiation we agree on a price of around $240 (including tax) for the sale of the following three instruments they had labeled "As Is":

Vito (YAS-23 stencil) Alto Sax
Buffet E-11 (made in Germany) Bb Clarinet with Nickle plated keys. 85x,xxx SN
Vito 7212 Bb Clarinet.

These instruments had been set aside from their normal stock of ready to play instruments as 'unplayablel. Their technician had rejected them as not being worth their time and had been sitting in stock taking up space. There were other instruments, a pile of mostly bundy and old vito clarinets, a few Artly and Armstrong flutes along with a gemeinhardt. There was a Selmer Signet clarinet who's barrel was obviously not original, an old C-mel, and a Winston Tenor Sax missing it's neck.

I took what looked best to me.

I'm pretty happy with this haul.
 
I'd be happy with that deal as well. The Vito sax alone is worth more than that.
 
And the real kicker here is that there really isn't a whole lot of work that needs to be done. Biggest issue is the E-11 has a spring broken off at the base of a post, right near the post's foot. I don't have a tool currently that will get this out, but I think it's a good excuse to add this to my tool collection:

http://musicmedic.com/products/repair-tools/pliers/spring-pliers/spring-removing-pliers.html

Everything else is a matter of a few sticky pads with a few needing replacement, minor leaks, cleaning, oiling. The E-11 is the only one I would have listed as "unplayable" as it was partially disassembled with a broken spring. I'm not quite sure why they thought these instruments weren't worth their technician's time...
 
"an old C-mel"
What brand? Just curious.
I will say, I believe that's a good price for those.
 
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Well it's either a Buescher, Conn, or Couturier.
What shape is it in and which of those three is it?

And they probably thought that they weren't worth their time because they might have had a lot of work at the time that they decided that.
 
Not sure, I didn't look too closely since I have never seriously considered buying a C-Mel and the other three tapped me out financially. I spent most of the time looking over the pieces of the E-11 (Lower section was mostly disassembled. The tech probably got down to the spring only to realize it wasn't worth his time, then stuffed everything into the case) to make sure they were all there.
 
I'd be interested to know more about the Vito sax and how you identified it as a YAS -23. I have one I bought 30 years ago and haven't found much online about them.
 
There's a metric ton of stuff both here and online about the horns stenciled as Vitos.

Vito VSP, stamped "Made in Japan" or just "Japan": Yanagisawa.
Vito, stamped "Made in Japan": Yamaha (I don't think this model Vito was around long enough for Yamaha's non-Japanese plants).
Vito, stamped "Made in Taiwan" or "Taiwan": KHS, i.e. Jupiter. IIRC, that's model 7133. Off the top of my head.

Of course there are the Leblanc-made horns, as well, but we're talking about horns other folks made for Vito.

Another way of looking at it is that the Vito version of the YAS-23 looks like a YAS-23 :).
 
pete said:
Another way of looking at it is that the Vito version of the YAS-23 looks like a YAS-23 :).
Click to expand...
Though the VITO version had a dark honey lacquer versus the 23's bright yellow gold lacquer.
I preferred the VITO version :)
 
If you're looking at black and white pics, they're the same :p.

Regarding darker lacquer, I'm not completely sure on that. I have seen some with a darker lacquer, but I've seen a few with the standard bright yellow. I used to say that I thought that the Vito version of the Yamaha was actually a 25 model, not 23, because I've seen some with darker lacquer. The 25 also had keywork to altissimo F#, so that'd be an easy way to tell.

Anyhow, attached is a pic of a Japanese YAS-23 (i.e not stamped with a different country's name) and two Vito stencils. Are the stencils truly darker or is it the lighting?

pict02.JPG

ya528041a.jpg

8_zpsxckfmmok.jpg
 
I've bought Vito's and friends have bought them from my recommendation. They've all had dark lacquer.
I've had the Vito alto and tenor in the past.
You can photograph something with dark lacquer and make it look bright if you don't know what you are doing.

But the dark lacquer makes it sound better :) at least it looks better to me. :)
 
Scout said:
I'd be interested to know more about the Vito sax and how you identified it as a YAS -23. I have one I bought 30 years ago and haven't found much online about them.
Click to expand...

For me the giveaway is the keyguard that curves around the bow to include the low C. Non-Yamaha Vitos have traditional low Bb/B keyguards.
 
jbtsax said:
For me the giveaway is the keyguard that curves around the bow to include the low C. Non-Yamaha Vitos have traditional low Bb/B keyguards.
Click to expand...
IS that true for all Yamaha 23's?
If I recall the tenors didn't have the long keyguard .. but it's been awhile.
 
Steve said:
IS that true for all Yamaha 23's?
If I recall the tenors didn't have the long keyguard .. but it's been awhile.
Click to expand...

Just the altos. Wait! I just saw some pictures of the YTS-21. That model did have the long keyguard. Yamaha must have gone to the "traditional" keyguard when they went to the 23.
 
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