Saxophone Forum


by DoctorCzar
(3 posts)
9 years ago

Need Help Buying a Soprano

Hi there! I'm a brand new account, but have used this webite many times for helpful information and research. Although I'm only a freshman, I've been told I am really good having beating out all our juniors and all but one of our sophmores. I play a YAS-23 alto for concert, a Cannonball Tenor for Jazz band, and even got my hands on a bari for a little while. During marching band season I use my very first alto, a cheap $200 chinese model off of ebay titled 'Anaxa' (No longer exists).  I used that through 7th grade until getting my YAS-23.  With a slight repair and refurbish from the best woodwind repair guy in my area who said in a strong russian accent and I quote, "This is very good horn. Very well built", and the addition of a 4C from my yami makes this chinese thing perfect for marching being very similar to my yami with only slightly worse intonation.  Although my teacher hates them, I would really love a soprano sax to mess around with, improve my overall playing ability, and be great in a sax quartet with my friends [Plus who in highschool can say they've played soprano before :P ]  Not wanting to spend more than about $500-600 I went back to ebay and the chinese/taiwanese saxes.  After much research online from places like this I have found that the brands TopSax, Taishan, and Jean Baptiste are the best. These two in particular caught my eye:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-TaiShan-Antique-Soprano-Saxophone-Bb-High-F-Straight-Sax-With-Case-/121379210808?hash=item1c42c3c638

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Top-Black-Nickel-Straight-Soprano-Saxophone-Sax-High-F-2-Necks-With-Metal-Mouth/171493755673?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D777000%26algo%3DABA.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D32481%26meid%3D209087137be84fe4b9c498aa4e66df5e%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26sd%3D311441457710

The first one is sold through a very reputable Taishan seller, and I'm seriously considering it.  Still not sure if I want a straight or curved sop, but there seem to be plenty of different combinations from these makers.  With one of these I would almost certainly get a better mouthpeice ranging from a rico graftonite or metalite, 4C, all the way up to an S80 or 90 C*.

My questions include:

  • Will I even be able to play a soprano or will it be too huge a jump?
  • Are these good enough saxes for what I want to do?
  • What are relatively inexpensive good mouthieces for new sop players to make these instruments better?

If you have any alternative or better ideas, feel free to speak up!  Thank you!

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