I come from a family of musicians. My great-grandfather played banjo and piano during the Great Depression, which is how he fed his family when times got really tough. My grandmother played piano, and my uncle Don played sax. My dad played sax, clarinet, accordian, and piano. I first started learning piano when I was 5 years old. By 4th grade, some of my friends were taking guitar lessons, so I too wanted to play guitar. When I was 9, my grandmother bought me a clarinet at a garage sale for $75. I played it for the first couple years of band, and the clarinet was knocked off a table in band by the tuba player. I had started playing around with dad's old Conn 10M tenor at home, and finally convinced him that I was old enough to play tenor. This was the end of my 6th grade year, back in 1985. I was 11 years old and I had all I could do to drag that heavy horn back and forth to school. I've always loved the saxophone. I switched to alto for a while, as the old 10M was needing a lot of repair. I kept it in the closet for a long time while I played mostly keyboard, and guitar and occasionally alto. Up until 2002, I owned 3 saxophones; the Conn 10M, a Conn 14M Director's model alto (1963) and a Conn New Wonder Series I C Melody with a busted octave key. I decided to have the old tenor relacquered and overhauled. The Wind Works in Burton, MI did a fantastic job, and made the old tenor play and look like brand new again. Shortly thereafter, I started collecting horns. One of the first that I purchased was my 6M alto, and a King Zephyr baritone sax. I sold the 14M alto. I bought another C Melody, and I continued buying old saxophones and learning how to restore them. People were always bringing old horns into the shop to just get rid of them. One of them was a Conn Chu Berry tenor that was actually in pretty nice shape. I suggested she try listing it on ebay, and she said "I'm sure it's probably worth more, but rather than mess around with that, I'd rather just get $50 for it and get it out of my closet! I reached into my back pocket, grabbed my wallet and handed her a $50 bill in less than 3 seconds! I've found a few other great deals like that, and I have had a couple horns given to me by musicians who I have played with in the past, and my uncle. I own 26 horns currently. 20 of them are Conn, 3 Bueschers, 2 Kings, and a Keilwerth.

How I met my first sax... I was in the fifth grade getting ready to go into middle school and was looking at all of the instruments that I could play. Initially I wanted to play trumpet (to this day I still don't know why) but due to the size of my lips and teeth at the time I was told to try sax instead. I ended up picking up sax at age 11. My first was a gorgeous alto given to me by my grandfather who bought it used when he was in school in mid 1940's. At the time I didn't care much for it since it wasn't all bright and shiny like everyone elses. My second was a soprano that I got from my grandmother who bought it used back in the late '30s. Like my alto, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Then in high school I became brain washed into thinking that I had to have a Selmer to get the "right" sound so I bought a Series II. It was alright, but sold it later when I picked my first alto back up in private lessons again. I'm trying to get into collection and restoration, but my job isn't very condusive, both in time and space, to do so right now.

I too met my first sax in the fifth grade, hehe. I was originally going to play trumpet (but only because the school I was at only had brass instruments) but then i changed schools and i was only able to pick from woodwind instruments. so i tried the clarinet, but i didnt like it too much and i changed to alto, and i've been playing it ever since!!!

In our small school, the only Tenor Sax player two years from graduating when I entered 5th grade. Therefore, the band instructor asked if I would play Tenor Sax. My parents bought a used Conn 16M for $350 (in 1973) and I've been playing it ever since. I also picked up a Conn 6M used (for $150) in high school, and can't take it in for repairs without the repairmen offering to buy it! I recently bought my first soprano (Winston) and am having fun learning to lip the middle range so the notes come out in tune.