Me said:
1. The Yamaha China plant is owned by Yamaha and has been producing horns since 2000 ...
2. There appears to be some Yamaha stuff being made in Malaysia, which is immediately north of Indonesia, but they're two separate countries.
3. There are still Yamahas being assembled in the US using parts from Yamaha China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Of course, that doesn't matter for the 40% or so of our members that live outside the US -- or, possibly, for the 60% that live in the US.
...
5. It's not very clear if Yamaha Japan is still making student/intermediate horns. Stephen Howard mentions that he was starting to see "Made in Indonesia" in 2007, but there appears to have been some cross-over then, still.
6. It's overly confirmed that Yamaha pro models are still made in Japan.
Yamaha Indonesia was first with the
01Q models starting around 1998. The Chinese-made Advantage line looks like it came out around 2000. (The Allegro line was initially sold to the education market, only, and is now made in China. I don't have a good start date on these.)
+1 on that Clinton pic, Steve. Makes me wonder how many saxophones Clinton now has because everyone keeps giving them to him
.
===============
Take a look at this:
http://www.bloomberg.com said:
Yamaha Music & Electronics Taiwan Co., Ltd. engages in the import and sales of musical instruments, PA equipment, and AV products. Yamaha Music & Electronics Taiwan Co., Ltd. was formerly known as Yamaha KHS Music Co., Ltd. and changed its name to Yamaha Music & Electronics Taiwan Co., Ltd. in March, 2013 as a result of the acquisition of Yamaha KHS Music Co., Ltd. by Yamaha Corporation. The company was founded in 1996 and is based in Taipei, Taiwan. Yamaha Music & Electronics Taiwan Co., Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation.
Full link.
I also dug up
this link. It talks about a couple of Yamaha and KHS partnerships. The first was in 1969 to make
pianos. The second was in 1996. From the link in the above paragraph, Yamaha bought out Yamaha KHS in 2013. I did some Internet magic and I went to the
Yamaha Taiwan page from 2012. Looks like they're selling the standard Yamaha saxophone line. I'm
relatively sure that the only instruments that Yamaha KHS made were pianos and electronic instruments. Also, going back to that link on the KHS website, KHS started making wind instruments in 1957 and started using the name "Jupiter" in 1985 (contradicting Steve's Wikipedia source). In other words, the LC Sax website is still playing a bit fast & loose with facts -- or, again, they have bad translators.
Personally, I don't mind the idea of Yamaha sending their techs wherever to get training. I think that LC Sax is trying to make you think that their horns are as high quality as Yamaha's. I think that's the bottom line and I really can't answer that for you. Taiwanese horns have made significant strides in quality over the past few years -- Helen really liked that Sea Wind bari, for instance -- but I don't think I can start telling folks, "Look for horns from LC Sax! They're grrrreat!" I also still think that $34,000 is a ridiculous price for any saxophone.