You mean brand new?
That period sounds likely.
Yup. Brand new. And thanks, all, for the compliments.
Regarding not brand new, one could easily make the argument that when eBay got big -- say, 2002 (when they bought PayPal) -- that was the start of the best years for buying horns.
Personally, I think that you could make a very good argument that the best new horns of all time are available now. You've got the largest range of saxophone pitches (Bb sopranissimo to various sub-contrabasses), Italian-made horns are now known as some of the best horns available (Borgani, Rampone & Cazzani, Orsi), there are a host of "Artisan" manufacturers that make some incredibly nice instruments (Inderbinen, Jessen, etc.), you've got a completely new fingering system (Jim Schmidt), possibly the best bass and contrabass ever (Eppelsheim), you've now got the big-name Japanese makers (Yamaha, Yanagisawa, Antigua) and, if you want to go cheap, the Taiwanese/Chinese instruments have improved dramatically in the past 10 years.
I also do think that one of the biggest problems, at the moment, is how high new horns are priced. I did a price survey a couple years back and the cheapest new "pro" alto was a Cannonball at $1600 and "traditional" places like Selmer, Yamaha and Yanagisawa are easily two to three times that for their "basic" pro horns. I'm currently doing research for a page of what $1100 + the standard, "If it's on eBay, assume $300 repair bill," can buy. The answer: a
lot of good vintage horns.
