What's The Best Deal On A Horn You Ever Got?
- Thread starter Helen
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About 10 years ago, I stumbled upon an ad in Craigslist...turns out, a father that lives in a wealthy neighborhood nearby bought a brand new Yanagisawa B-991 bari sax for his 15-year-old son. The son messed around with it for a month or two and then decided he wasn't interested. I replied to the ad and offered $1000, to which he immediately accepted.
This replaced my beat-up old Mark VI bari (Low Bb) which I only use now for bar gigs. It's a wonderful horn for big band and I did a full overhaul last year to upgrade pads and soft materials.
This replaced my beat-up old Mark VI bari (Low Bb) which I only use now for bar gigs. It's a wonderful horn for big band and I did a full overhaul last year to upgrade pads and soft materials.
I was gigging in a bar in the 1960s, and this lady came in with a silver king alto that was so tarnished it looked ugly. She said her husband played it but he died years ago and asked $50.00 for it. It had so many leaks, it wasn't playable.
I bought it, figuring having an alto would be fun. I had it overhauled and it turned out to be a 1925 King with the voice of an angel. I still have it and as many altos as I've compared it to (including MKVI) nothing sounds this sweet.
The intonation is a bit rough, but definitely playable. I don't know if it's the silver or the brass alloy, but the tone is like silk, and it's impossible to honk on it (I'll use my tenor for that).
Notes ♫
I bought it, figuring having an alto would be fun. I had it overhauled and it turned out to be a 1925 King with the voice of an angel. I still have it and as many altos as I've compared it to (including MKVI) nothing sounds this sweet.
The intonation is a bit rough, but definitely playable. I don't know if it's the silver or the brass alloy, but the tone is like silk, and it's impossible to honk on it (I'll use my tenor for that).
Notes ♫
Not a horn, but horn related:
10 or so years ago my violin playing in middle school aged daughter and taking dance lessons.
The lessons met 3x per week and I brought her to one of the three classes/lessons per week...'wife brought her the other 2x.
A recital was coming up and the Dance Instructor sent home a note asking for instruments to be used as props.
My wife asked me if I had any that could be used - me: uhhhhh NO
Back on point:
My fishing buddy's daughter was also in the class and his wife comes walking in with a very old violin case to donate.
Since my daughter was due for a full-sized violin I checked it out.
My buddy's grandfather used to play it and the case was hanging from the basement ceiling for years.
The bow was a mess, bridge was down, fingerboard was unglued, etc.....but, it had a single-piece back & there were no cracks.
I offered to buy it and she told me that her daughter had a nice new shiney one that she didn't play anymore.....
Me: nope, I want this one
They wanted to give it to me but I gave my buddy $500 as it had value.
$200 worth of work went into it to bring it back to life.
It was a 1925 Ernst Heinrich Roth violin.
I had it appraised @ $8500.00
My daughter still plays it (she is actually playing a wedding in my quartet today) and it sounds great.
If I wasn't at that dance lesson the instrument would have long since been in the local landfill.
10 or so years ago my violin playing in middle school aged daughter and taking dance lessons.
The lessons met 3x per week and I brought her to one of the three classes/lessons per week...'wife brought her the other 2x.
A recital was coming up and the Dance Instructor sent home a note asking for instruments to be used as props.
My wife asked me if I had any that could be used - me: uhhhhh NO
Back on point:
My fishing buddy's daughter was also in the class and his wife comes walking in with a very old violin case to donate.
Since my daughter was due for a full-sized violin I checked it out.
My buddy's grandfather used to play it and the case was hanging from the basement ceiling for years.
The bow was a mess, bridge was down, fingerboard was unglued, etc.....but, it had a single-piece back & there were no cracks.
I offered to buy it and she told me that her daughter had a nice new shiney one that she didn't play anymore.....
Me: nope, I want this one
They wanted to give it to me but I gave my buddy $500 as it had value.
$200 worth of work went into it to bring it back to life.
It was a 1925 Ernst Heinrich Roth violin.
I had it appraised @ $8500.00
My daughter still plays it (she is actually playing a wedding in my quartet today) and it sounds great.
If I wasn't at that dance lesson the instrument would have long since been in the local landfill.
Best deal I ever got on a musical instrument was a guitar.
Guitar is my 7th instrument.
I bought a $1,300 Parker Dragonfly/Maxxfly from an online store (Musician's Friend). They sent me a >$3,500 Parker MIDI Mojo Fly.
I called them up to let them know of their mistake, and asked how to resolve it. They told me they didn't have the guitar I ordered anymore, so I can keep the one they sent, or send it back for a refund.
I checked the legalities and they had a time period to change their mind. I think it was a month, but it was so long ago, I don't remember.
So when the time was up, I sold it on Ebay.
With the money I sold the MID Mojo Fly for, I bought the guitar I wanted and had money left over. In the end, I got the Dragonfly/Maxxfly for free and ended up with $800 in mypocket more than I started with.
Notes ♫
Guitar is my 7th instrument.
I bought a $1,300 Parker Dragonfly/Maxxfly from an online store (Musician's Friend). They sent me a >$3,500 Parker MIDI Mojo Fly.
I called them up to let them know of their mistake, and asked how to resolve it. They told me they didn't have the guitar I ordered anymore, so I can keep the one they sent, or send it back for a refund.
I checked the legalities and they had a time period to change their mind. I think it was a month, but it was so long ago, I don't remember.
So when the time was up, I sold it on Ebay.
With the money I sold the MID Mojo Fly for, I bought the guitar I wanted and had money left over. In the end, I got the Dragonfly/Maxxfly for free and ended up with $800 in mypocket more than I started with.
Notes ♫
I have a number of best deals, but the greatest one I got two years ago was an Antigua Winds BS3220LQ Low-A Baritone Saxophone from Quinn the Eskimo on E-Bay for $2,155 US plus tax and shipping. I've seen this model on one of the other popular on-line music store going for $4,200. We had a special service music at the Salvation Army church with 6 other churches participating, I brought it with me to be with the worship band.
It was a great jam session and with my free style playing in backing (band had keyboardist, guitarist, alto sax and I on the bari), people loved it.
It was a great jam session and with my free style playing in backing (band had keyboardist, guitarist, alto sax and I on the bari), people loved it.
I met the owner of that store when he came out of college with a PhD (don't remember the exact thing he studied, but it wasn't music). I hired him to be on my Visual Studio SDK writer team but the VS Basic team poached him (with my blessing). He talked me into buying my dream sax, a Couf Superba I alto. I hadn't played sax for 25+ years!!! Speed ahead ten years, when I retired from the corporate world he hired me as his communications guru. I worked with him for ten more years and then told him that I was going to do the work for free because I love what he does for the world of music.
All my family and friends go to him for instruments, he is more than fair, he is conscientious. And he is a fab trombone player too!
I know what you are referring to, @Notes_Norton . Twelve years ago, I bought a tattered Beaugnier Vito Bari Sax for $315 US. It's case was very musty, like it had been stored in a dank, damp cellar. It had many repairs through its history. Out of the case intonation was extremely bad. The saving grace was, it had decent pads. The roughly 70 year old case was in very bad condition, it would require a complete frame restoration due to missing and broken off pieces, plywood plies missing layers, etc. It was the first to be tossed in the bin.
It was a former high school instrument, even had the high school name on it. Researching, the seller I bought it from was reputable, made no exaggerations and shipping was reasonable. It looked like it might have been dropped down the football bleachers a couple times after noting its condition and repairs.
Little by little, I started working on it. Every time I worked on it, I corrected little things here and there, found it played better after each correction. Fortunately, it was formed of red brass, which was easier to work with by hand. First, I removed the large dents. The key racks were badly misaligned. I Straightened the posts by removing the dents underneath, pulled them back into alignment. The pad heights were way off, I installed missing bumpers, corks, corrected pad heights. It has may be about 50% of its original lacquer. I removed the tarnish by carefully using Brasso.
After a year's worth of tweaks, I now had an instrument that plays really well in tune. This horn is easy to hit falsetto. I don't miss the high F# key, because I can finger it. (IMO, one doesn't need the high F# key, it's placed in an awkward location to hit when falsetto is much easier to finger.) As the various write ups mention, it does have the mellower darker sound of the French saxes of the era. Opinions vary, but personally I love it for its richness, sounds great with the earlier swing era of jazz and also legit music. With a wide vibrato it IMO almost sounds Cello like.
In his 2019 book, (Amazon) The Leak Light Speaks, Saxophone Purchase, Assessment, Set Up, Repair, Overhaul, Customization and Reflections by Tom Levitt has this to say, "Saxophone Purchase. 1930 to 1960 was the golden era for saxophone manufacturing in terms of all-round quality. For the most part, pre-1960 saxophones are of intermediate or professional quality."
Based on the way this horn plays, especially after I cleaned it up, it definitely plays like a pro sax. I gather that the only difference between the cheaper student model LeBlanc Vito (for export to US) and their pro model was better jewels and engraving for the pro model, and finer adjustments before leaving the factory.
With some diligent research, could not nail down the year based on its serial number, listings contained gaps. However, based on Beaugnier tenors with the same the unique left pinky key pads, I figure it was manufactured in France around 1952 - 1953. I also learned that these saxes were hand made traditionally like they did years ago. The LeBlanc Beaugnier factory in a suburb of Paris across the street from Selmer, closed its door in 1970 because they could not compete on price with machine made instruments.
Now after constant use, it needs some pads replaced, where my Antigua Winds Low A Bari now comes in handy.
First photo collage is the Bari as received, 2nd is after I cleaned it up. After that photo, I installed the missing jewels in the pad guards (inexpensive proper sized ones for costume jewelry) and removed the dent in its bow.
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