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Forum » Vintage Saxophones » Should I buy a vinage Saxophone.


by jamun99
(2 posts)
5 years ago

Should I buy a vinage Saxophone.

I'm thinking of buying a curved soprano from a bandmate. It's a Conn 32XXX serial number, "New Invention" model, which dates it to roughly 1914/15-ish. Beautiful condition, plays great, and a really cool piece of saxophone history.

Since A-440 wasn't standard for instruments during that time I'm worried that it was pitched differently, making it a neat antique but ultimately useless for playing with ensembles. It plays middle A-440 with the mouthpiece all the way pushed in and upper A-880 with the predictable amount of lipping up/down you'd expect from a soprano. Is this enough to insure that the instrument is pitched correctly or is there some other easy way to find out?

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  2. by smithclarkson01
    (1 post)
    5 years ago

    Re: Should I buy a vinage Saxophone.

    If you've never played, you have zero chance of being able to tell if a sax is in good or playable shape.

    Either find a teacher and ask them to help you evaluate a sax or buy from a place that's got repaired/maintained saxes.

    Consider buying one of the Altos listed on 2ndending.com if finding a teacher to help is not workable.

    The guy that runs the site posts actively on saxontheweb.com and seems to have a really decent reputation, and those prices are good.

    Note that after you buy a sax, private lessons are gonna be really important to get you going, otherwise you'll gave to work 5 times as hard to get over bad habits you get from teaching yourself

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