Your all time favorite instrument?

Ed

Ed

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So what is your all time favorite instrument. The one that you have the fondest memories of and that you might be kicking yourself for ever letting go?

For me it's my Mark VI alto sax (87k). It just has such a sweet tone to it and I'm locked in with my setup so I know what the horn will and won't do. It is hands down the best alto I have ever played.
 
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Mark VI alto I bought for $300
Leblanc paperclip BBb contra to low C
1921 Conn bass with a bis key!
Buffet English Horn with full auto octave system
Armstrong alto flute with solid head (which I paid $120 for!)

I regret selling all of those, but I don't know if I really have an absolute all-time fave horn.

Instruments are more like necessary tools now - I play what I need to get the gig done well.
 
I've owned two horns that I regret no longer havening. I'll also explain the WHYs, too. Please also note that I've "used" a couple really nice horns (Mark VIs, mostly) that I thought were great, but I didn't own them.

* Buffet Dynaction alto sax. By far the best horn I've evar owned. Better than some (most, actually) Mark VIs I've played. I'm not an alto player, though, and I sold it to buy a ....

* Yamaha YBS-52 baritone sax (low A). The best all-around baritone sax I've evar owned. I sold it to a school district when I moved to Phoenix, AZ (the first time) so I could buy a car to get out here. The car was junk. The bari wasn't.

I can't exactly *regret* selling the alto: I needed the bari for school and ... I'm not an alto player. It was a pretty terrific horn, tho.
 
I guess I just haven't been buying horns that long. I started with my dream horns and worked up to my current stash of players. So my horns have only gotten better as I've gotten better. I tend to only sell the horns that didn't do it for me. So that means I have two sets of alto/tenor saxes that I luv. My current all time favs:
  • Selmer Paris Ref 54 'Hummingbird' alto and Ref 36 tenor
  • Selmer Paris Privilege 67 bass and silver soprano clarinets
  • Buffet R-13 Festival soprano clarinet
  • Eppelsheim soprillo and bass sax
  • Yani B990 bari, S992 soprano and Elmona sopranino
How can anyone just pick one? They all are players. And they all are so beautiful they could be considered fine art. I can't wait to see Randy's list. :emoji_rage:
 
My Mark VI tenor is also a keeper. Just a great playing horn once the key heights were adjusted a bit.

I'm already starting to feel that way about my Yani bari. It just flat out plays. It came back from the tech last night and it is now really tight. Great playing horn.

My Rampone and Cazanni soprano replaced a nice playing Antigua Winds A590 SPC. The R&C just flat out plays. One of these days I may actually find a mouthpiece that I really like on soprano. :emoji_smile:

I have a couple of other horns that I really enjoy playing as well. At one point I had a killer Yamaha 62 alto that I sold to a guy on SOTW. That's the only horn I kinda wish I had kept.
 
I actually have the opposite problem to most of you here, I never get rid of anything...This extends to way more than my horns...Which is why my current house is too "small". :emoji_smile: (Although it would be fine for the "average family of 4, and we're a family of 2 humans, 1 medium-sized dog & a rabbit.)

Having said that, there is one horn that I did part with, "way back when". :geezer1:When I started university, I sold the horn I had (one of the last King Super 20s) to get the Selmer Mark VI tenor I still currently have (which is a killer tenor actually). The King was not really "acceptable" in the music department at UBC where I was going to study performance.

At the time I sold my Super 20 to one of my students. I always wonder what happened to that horn. It had a huge sound: It roared (which the Supers 20s were of course known for). It didn't of course have that classical type sound, and of course that was what at the time I was studying at UBC (since that's all they offered)....Oh how times change...Now here I am a rocker and blues player...

I love my VI, and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I'd still love to have that 20 back again too! Sigh....
 
1928 Buescher TrueTone Bb straight soprano - still have it - still play it. DAVE
 
A Conn DJH 108M . Not the prettiest horn I've owned, but by far the best alto I've ever played. I too sold it because I didn't think of myself as an alto player. Fact is, in the last few years, I've played alto more than anything. =(
 
All of my saxophones play very well, so it's hard to pick the best one. The alto is my main axe, so that's the one that I'm concerned with the most.

The alto that I'm using now would have to be the best instrument. It's a Selmer reference that plays exceptionally well. I've had a chance to try a handfull of similar horns, and mine is still my favorite. They were all great playing horns though. I sold one of my old mk6's after I bought the reference, I would never do that if I didn't think that this is a great horn.

As far as sellers remorse goes, I have to admit that I miss the 6 I sold after the ref, but I had pretty much blown that horn out. I bought it new in '75 and played it extensivly until '96. It was pretty well worn, so I don't miss it that much. I'm not the kind of guy who plays the same horn forever.
 
I love my Fox Renard 222 bassoon.

It's the only bassoon I've had... so yeah. Also it's the only instrument I've ever enjoyed playing. I'm never going to give it up.
 
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