Unique Refinished YAS-23
- Thread starter jbtsax
- Start date
I think it looks pretty nice. Here's the ad:
It's now (essentially) a brand new horn, provided the horn was overhauled as per the ad. I do, however, think the $950 "buy it now" is probably too high: I took a brief look at closed ads and I see a lot of 52 through 61 models for about the same price. Again, while the pretty is nice, you can't play the shine. (They do have it at no reserve and starts at $600.)
Attachments
The YAS-23 has been replaced with the YAS-26 which is essentially the same saxophone with a little beefier neck socket and screw and (I think) a low B - C# closing mechanism. These sell for around $1900 new. I haven't seen one up close and personal yet so I can't comment on how well they are made. The Yamaha "Advantage" series made somewhere in Indonesia instead of Japan were disappointing to say the least. They were not close to the same level as the 23's.
I believe Yamaha along with other manufacturers have had to contend with rising labor costs, and are scrambling to remain competitive with the flood of Taiwanese and now Vietnamese saxophones on the market which are getting better all the time. What is keeping the price of the used YAS-23's down is the incredible number of them in the marketplace. In the past 6 months on Ebay there were 1670 sold at an average price of $350. New and like new are selling for around $1200.
I believe Yamaha along with other manufacturers have had to contend with rising labor costs, and are scrambling to remain competitive with the flood of Taiwanese and now Vietnamese saxophones on the market which are getting better all the time. What is keeping the price of the used YAS-23's down is the incredible number of them in the marketplace. In the past 6 months on Ebay there were 1670 sold at an average price of $350. New and like new are selling for around $1200.
First, let me mention that YMMV depending on what part of the world you're in. Seriously. There was the YAS-25, for instance, which was available in Asia and Europe.
Anyhow, Yamaha USA's current offerings are listed on their website. The 23 is still listed on that page, but Yamaha's Amazon page and a couple of other random dealers show that they're no longer available new. The 26 is. However, if you compare the 23 to the 26, you'll notice that the long rods for the G#/C#/B/Bb cluster on the 26 looks a lot more "Selmer Mark VI-Like" (it's actually "more Yamaha 34/52 like"). To me that means that the 26 is more of a replacement for the 275 than the 23. I briefly checked and I also can't find any new 275s for sale.
For those of you out there without tonight's line-up card, Yamaha names their horns like, "YAS-275." The "YAS" stands for "Yamaha Alto Sax." The "2" in the numbers means "student model." "6" is for non-handmade professional horns (e.g. YAS-62) and "8" is for their custom pro horns (e.g. YAS-875). After that, the numbering scheme has faltered quite a bit since I bought my YBS-52 in the 1980s. As an example, the 34 replaced the YBS-52 in some markets, but they're almost identical horns. In other words, you could end up with something like, "A 34 isn't better than a 52, but is a 475 is better than a 52?"
(There was a 61 [e.g. YAS-61] and a 21 [e.g. YAS-21]. The former was Yamaha's first pro model and the latter was their first student model.)
There was an "O" model student horn. This was a horn contracted out to a plant in Indonesia. The "AD" horns may have been 100% farmed out to China. I haven't seen enough of them with a "Made in" stamp to know. They were supposed to have been made to be more easy to repair.
Finally, don't confuse the AD horns with the "AL" horns. Those are the "Allegro" models and were higher-end intermediate horns sold to the education market.
Recently, Yamaha has contracted out some work on their student horns to a plant they own in Indonesia -- I've seen pics of the plant and it does say "Yamaha" on the side -- and I'm fairly positive I remember seeing at least one Yamaha stamped with "Made in China."
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EDIT: I see there are 22 hours left on the eBay ad an no bids. Hey, $601 is a pretty good price for that horn, provided the ad copy is truthful.
Anyhow, Yamaha USA's current offerings are listed on their website. The 23 is still listed on that page, but Yamaha's Amazon page and a couple of other random dealers show that they're no longer available new. The 26 is. However, if you compare the 23 to the 26, you'll notice that the long rods for the G#/C#/B/Bb cluster on the 26 looks a lot more "Selmer Mark VI-Like" (it's actually "more Yamaha 34/52 like"). To me that means that the 26 is more of a replacement for the 275 than the 23. I briefly checked and I also can't find any new 275s for sale.
For those of you out there without tonight's line-up card, Yamaha names their horns like, "YAS-275." The "YAS" stands for "Yamaha Alto Sax." The "2" in the numbers means "student model." "6" is for non-handmade professional horns (e.g. YAS-62) and "8" is for their custom pro horns (e.g. YAS-875). After that, the numbering scheme has faltered quite a bit since I bought my YBS-52 in the 1980s. As an example, the 34 replaced the YBS-52 in some markets, but they're almost identical horns. In other words, you could end up with something like, "A 34 isn't better than a 52, but is a 475 is better than a 52?"
(There was a 61 [e.g. YAS-61] and a 21 [e.g. YAS-21]. The former was Yamaha's first pro model and the latter was their first student model.)
There was an "O" model student horn. This was a horn contracted out to a plant in Indonesia. The "AD" horns may have been 100% farmed out to China. I haven't seen enough of them with a "Made in" stamp to know. They were supposed to have been made to be more easy to repair.
Finally, don't confuse the AD horns with the "AL" horns. Those are the "Allegro" models and were higher-end intermediate horns sold to the education market.
Recently, Yamaha has contracted out some work on their student horns to a plant they own in Indonesia -- I've seen pics of the plant and it does say "Yamaha" on the side -- and I'm fairly positive I remember seeing at least one Yamaha stamped with "Made in China."
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EDIT: I see there are 22 hours left on the eBay ad an no bids. Hey, $601 is a pretty good price for that horn, provided the ad copy is truthful.
Oh. I didn't know you were the seller. You didn't actually mention that.
Who else would use the name "saxnut"? It actually sold for just the opening bid price of $600 which is a bit disappointing considering the amount of work put into it. But after all it was still a YAS-23. Someone on another forum commented, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig" which I took as an insult since it was "my" pig he was referring to. Nevertheless, somebody got a great playing saxophone for a great price and I learned a great deal in the process.
Hey, if I was looking for a sax and only had a $600 budget, I would have been all over that, too. Someone got himself a pretty good buy.
EDIT: ... and this horn isn't a pig. It's a good horn that's been set-up great. I'd call the analogy police on that poster.
EDIT: ... and this horn isn't a pig. It's a good horn that's been set-up great. I'd call the analogy police on that poster.