Hi sax gal. Terry here is giving you some good advice. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Vandoren. I have used their reeds in the past, and while I like the traditional uncut reeds the best, I think the LaVoz reeds are much better. The Rico Royal Jazz Select reeds are pretty good, but the typical orange box cheapo's are not that good. I used to play a Conn shooting star alto. That was my first alto saxophone. Great horn, and it played so easily, but after I bought my Conn 6M, I sold it on ebay to help pay to have a couple other horns overhauled. Depending on the type of sound that you are looking for, I can make a few suggestions. I'm not a big fan of Selmer mouthpieces, and I had intonation problems with a Selmer S 80 C* on my Conn 6M, so I would be leary of an S 80 on any Conn. The best piece I have found for a Conn alto is an Otto Link Tone Edge. It's a good tone for rock, blues, and jazz. For a good legit sound, I would try a Brilhart Ebolin mouthpiece. Another good mouthpiece for less than $20 is the Rico Royal Graftonite mouthpiece. They are very easy to play and have a very full, robust sound. I use them on tenor, alto and baritone, and for the price, they are really hard to beat. For an outstanding jazz sound, Jody Jazz mouthpieces are absolutely fantastic, and every bit as fantastic as their mouthpieces is their customer service! Jody answers the emails himself! I just ordered an ESP from him, and I can't wait to try it out on my tenor.

traditional 2 1/2. sorry about the typo

Okay, i went to the store and got a la voz medium size. I think it sounds pretty good, and its easier to play than the VanDoren i got. I'll get a friend over who plays tenor sax to tell me if it sounds good or not. lol, i know this may sound annoying, but why shouldnt i do anything with the lacquer? Thank you

yeah, i did a test, and i think i really like the la voz, and the vandoren. well, i was on this site, and it was saying about how you can tell if a sax has already been relacquered, or if you should, and i checked the signs, and i realized my sax has already been relquered once before, because when it says "mexico" its really hard to read. i realized that with relquering, i could loose more of the strong metal of the sax, and details of the engravement. have you ever heard of Music Stop? its the music store closet to me, so i would et it re-finished through there. but what do you think of plating? ike, plating it in gold or silver. can you do that? will i lose details of the engravement? i donno, why the first time i said if i should just strip it, is because i dont really want the lacquer to thin the sound, and steal the round ring, or to cover up my engravements...what do you think?