You may have noticed I have a couple threads devoted to, "Here's a good beginner's alto or tenor you can actually buy for cheap." However, I haven't started a thread on other horns you can buy. Generally, this is because you're almost never going to have a beginner playing one. However, when I started playing sax in high school, I was almost immediately "promoted" into playing baritone. Slightly after that, I bought my own used bari. Right before college, I bought a brand new bari. So, I wanted to address getting horns that are from the higher and lower end of the saxophone family. For "beginners" this would mean Eb baritone and Bb soprano. Definitely nothing higher or lower. Maybe you'd be give a C melody tenor or C soprano to play around with, but it's rare that you'd use one in a group -- and, other than Vito's C tenor in the 60s and modern Chinese horns, the horns you'd get are from the early 1930s or earlier. In other words, none of these are even close to horns I'd want to recommend beginning players use.
Baritone
I think the best thing I can do for folks that want to play baritone is point them directly at KesslerMusic.com's Solist Low A bari. It's a good Chinese or Taiwanese copy of the Yanagisawa 901. It's $2395, which is a very decent price, and I'm 100% positive that you're going to get a working, good playing horn if you get one from Mr. Kessler. But what about used? Well, OK, you need to budget about $1000 for an overhaul. So, that's eight horns in eBay Buy-it-Now, right now. Let me list a few:
HN White King Voll-True from 1930, range to low Bb: $1350. I don't care for the intonation on these and the keywork is rather challenging.
(Relatively sure; check for "Made in Italy") Ditta Giglio Bundy from 1960s/1970s, range to low Bb: $1250. I really don't have to say much more than "former school music department horn."
Armstrong (Conn 12M stencil) from 1970, range to low Bb: $800. Rough shape. Horn produced after all sax production moved to Nogales, so it may have some inherent quality issues.
Conn 12M from 1966, range to low Bb: $589. Missing neck. Missing posts. I do think you could end up with a nice horn for around that $2400 mark, though.
Selmer USA Bundy from 1977ish, range to low Bb: $595. Broken key, squished tone holes.
King Tempo (Keilwerth New King Stencil), range to low Bb: $553. Missing 3/4 of the horn.
I think you get the idea. Even looking at sold auction horns, you're not going to find a bari in any kind of decent shape. There's a Yanagisawa 880 (pro model from the 1980s) with no neck that went for $980. That one is worthy of an overhaul and a new ($330 or so) neck. I think that one might squeak under $2400 after all repairs and it'll be better than Kessler's, although it won't look quite as nice.
There are two Keilwerth made Bundy horns on worldwidesax.com for $2399 and $1989, both with new pads. These are the same make/model as my first bari, so I know how good they are. They may be a tad better than that Kessler horn. Maybe you can talk to Kessler and WorldWideSax to trial (or have your instructor trial) these horns.
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Bb Soprano
I think that one of the obvious questions is, "Considering the Bb soprano is so small, why don't people start school-age beginners on them?" Probably the biggest reason is because they require a lot of work if you want a controlled sound (I hear a lot of soprano players "lift" and bend notes, even when the music doesn't call for that) and they're a lot more difficult to play consistently in tune. A secondary, but still very good reason, is because any group you're in will probably not have more than one soprano sax player, unless you're playing in a large saxophone choir. I've seen a few groups that do have two soprano players, but most have only one or none. However, the soprano does have a versatile tone and I've had to use it to substitute for oboe, on occasion.
Bb sopranos come in a zillion makes, models, and shapes. You're generally going to find them fully curved (looks like an alto sax) or straight (looks like a metal clarinet), and these may have straight or slightly bent necks. For me, personally, I have a problem playing straight sopranos because I tend to play them like clarinets. I'm a lot better on early 30s or earlier fully curved sopranos with alto-sax-style necks.
The arguably best modern sopranos are from Yanagisawa. I was also kind of surprised that they can be fairly inexpensive, too. This Whitehall, a stencil of the Yanagisawa S-6 straight soprano from 1975, sold for $499. That's a professional horn that was in an auction, not a BIN. KesslerMusic.com again has their own line, ranging from $1469 to $649 for straight horns and $929 to $839 for curved. So, could I get a decent BIN soprano for less than $1469? Well,
* Brief survey of sax dealers finds this nice little curved Martin stencil from the 1920s for $800. I think that, after all the repairs are done, it'll easily be under $1400.
* There's an HN White King curvy from 1918 for $1250. Doesn't look like it'll need too much to get into good shape.
... and that's about it. If you want an inexpensive good soprano, you have to be lucky in an auction -- and I can't give you much more of a recommendation than "get a Yanagisawa."
Baritone
I think the best thing I can do for folks that want to play baritone is point them directly at KesslerMusic.com's Solist Low A bari. It's a good Chinese or Taiwanese copy of the Yanagisawa 901. It's $2395, which is a very decent price, and I'm 100% positive that you're going to get a working, good playing horn if you get one from Mr. Kessler. But what about used? Well, OK, you need to budget about $1000 for an overhaul. So, that's eight horns in eBay Buy-it-Now, right now. Let me list a few:
HN White King Voll-True from 1930, range to low Bb: $1350. I don't care for the intonation on these and the keywork is rather challenging.
(Relatively sure; check for "Made in Italy") Ditta Giglio Bundy from 1960s/1970s, range to low Bb: $1250. I really don't have to say much more than "former school music department horn."
Armstrong (Conn 12M stencil) from 1970, range to low Bb: $800. Rough shape. Horn produced after all sax production moved to Nogales, so it may have some inherent quality issues.
Conn 12M from 1966, range to low Bb: $589. Missing neck. Missing posts. I do think you could end up with a nice horn for around that $2400 mark, though.
Selmer USA Bundy from 1977ish, range to low Bb: $595. Broken key, squished tone holes.
King Tempo (Keilwerth New King Stencil), range to low Bb: $553. Missing 3/4 of the horn.
I think you get the idea. Even looking at sold auction horns, you're not going to find a bari in any kind of decent shape. There's a Yanagisawa 880 (pro model from the 1980s) with no neck that went for $980. That one is worthy of an overhaul and a new ($330 or so) neck. I think that one might squeak under $2400 after all repairs and it'll be better than Kessler's, although it won't look quite as nice.
There are two Keilwerth made Bundy horns on worldwidesax.com for $2399 and $1989, both with new pads. These are the same make/model as my first bari, so I know how good they are. They may be a tad better than that Kessler horn. Maybe you can talk to Kessler and WorldWideSax to trial (or have your instructor trial) these horns.
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Bb Soprano
I think that one of the obvious questions is, "Considering the Bb soprano is so small, why don't people start school-age beginners on them?" Probably the biggest reason is because they require a lot of work if you want a controlled sound (I hear a lot of soprano players "lift" and bend notes, even when the music doesn't call for that) and they're a lot more difficult to play consistently in tune. A secondary, but still very good reason, is because any group you're in will probably not have more than one soprano sax player, unless you're playing in a large saxophone choir. I've seen a few groups that do have two soprano players, but most have only one or none. However, the soprano does have a versatile tone and I've had to use it to substitute for oboe, on occasion.
Bb sopranos come in a zillion makes, models, and shapes. You're generally going to find them fully curved (looks like an alto sax) or straight (looks like a metal clarinet), and these may have straight or slightly bent necks. For me, personally, I have a problem playing straight sopranos because I tend to play them like clarinets. I'm a lot better on early 30s or earlier fully curved sopranos with alto-sax-style necks.
The arguably best modern sopranos are from Yanagisawa. I was also kind of surprised that they can be fairly inexpensive, too. This Whitehall, a stencil of the Yanagisawa S-6 straight soprano from 1975, sold for $499. That's a professional horn that was in an auction, not a BIN. KesslerMusic.com again has their own line, ranging from $1469 to $649 for straight horns and $929 to $839 for curved. So, could I get a decent BIN soprano for less than $1469? Well,
* Brief survey of sax dealers finds this nice little curved Martin stencil from the 1920s for $800. I think that, after all the repairs are done, it'll easily be under $1400.
* There's an HN White King curvy from 1918 for $1250. Doesn't look like it'll need too much to get into good shape.
... and that's about it. If you want an inexpensive good soprano, you have to be lucky in an auction -- and I can't give you much more of a recommendation than "get a Yanagisawa."