Questions...

[Andrea84]

Hi, I have done a lot of reading around on these boards but I still have a few questions. Some may seem silly.

I'm very much considering buying a soprano antigua as my first soprano, I currently do not play any other saxes but still own my old yamaha alto but I haven't touched it in 6 years. I currently live in the Seattle area but will be moving back home to Australia soon. My question is if I buy this Anitgua brand which isn't sold in australia, will I have an problems in regards to getting it repaired and getting parts for it etc. over in australia?

My second question is in regards to the black nickel finish on the an antiguas. I really like this finish and I think they are beutiful instruments, however, what will the finish of these black nickel instruments look like in a few good years. I ask this because I bought my yamaha alto second hand, not sure how old it was but it was already all tarnished or corroded or whatever call it. What will the black nickel ones look like after a few good years and if you scratched it would show up as a brass colour?

My third question, the silly question. For those that own the black nickel instruments, have you ever been frowned upon or turned down from a community band type thing because your sax was too different looking?

I believe that is all the questions I have for now, an antigua rep is bringing over a few of the sopranos to the music store by my house tomorrow so I'll be checking them out, hope they bring both the gold and the black. The playability of them will be hard for me to judge seeing as I've only being playing the sop for the past 3 days on a rental. Thanks for all your help.

Andrea.

[Randall]

Hi Andrea,
I will try to help a little:
1. My question is if I buy this Anitgua brand which isn't sold in australia, will I have an problems in regards to getting it repaired and getting parts for it etc. over in australia?

>>You shouldn't have trouble. I think you are assuming you will have to replace parts, which is highly unusual and unlikely on a good horn.
The Antigua is a very good horn. Normal maintenace and pad replacement will beno problem whatsoever.
Should a replacement part ever be necessary, probably your tech can request one directly from the company (providing there is nothing remotely similar there). If you tech is competent, he/she should be able to fabricate most parts for you.
Also there are a number of Taiwan horns imported into Australia....there is a high liklihood that some of the parts of the various brands will be interchangeable.

2. My second question is in regards to the black nickel finish on the an antiguas. I really like this finish and I think they are beutiful instruments, however, what will the finish of these black nickel instruments look like in a few good years. I ask this because I bought my yamaha alto second hand, not sure how old it was but it was already all tarnished or corroded or whatever call it. What will the black nickel ones look like after a few good years and if you scratched it would show up as a brass colour?

>>Black nickle is very durable, but you need to wipe it down after playing, just like any other finish. I have had a black nickel horn that lost the plating in the scratched areas (Strap hook, left hand bell pants guard area, neck), and I could see the silver colored nickle plating showing from under the black.
Now the horn I am talking of was owned by a pro player who played the horn in all kinds of venues for around 10 years. He wasn't kind to the horn at all. If you take care of it, it will hold up beautifully.

3. My third question, the silly question. For those that own the black nickel instruments, have you ever been frowned upon or turned down from a community band type thing because your sax was too different looking?

>>Never, but if it happened I would just ignore them. You buy the instrument and you have to be satisfied with it.
If anything, my experience is quite the opposite...everyone loves the look, not to mention the sound!
;)

[Dave Dolson]

Andrea: I'll second Randall's comments about obtaining parts. I doubt if you will ever need a replacement part for it, except pads, corks, felts, springs, etc. Those are easy to find and are usually not proprietary. If per chance you'd need to replace parts, I'd recommend contacting Kessler who is a known and trusted dealer of Antigua's. He could always order and ship a part to you. However, I am NOT speaking for Dave Kessler, only suggesting a solution.

As far as the black nickle goes, they are nice looking horns. I played Tom Mayho's black nickle Antigua sop a few weeks ago and it was really nice. The finish has nothing do with how it plays, though. If you care for the horn, there is every reason to believe it will look nice for many years to come.

Lastly, so what if someone else doesn't like it? DAVE

[goodsax]

In my short community concert band career, I've already run into narrow-minded biased attitudes about saxophone equipment: horn, mpc, lig, reed - even neckstraps. At first, it bothered me a lot. Now, it still bothers me a little, but I'm not about to rush out and change to whatever "they" think I should be playing. I think if you do a credible job contributing to the music organization, what you're using to do that is, or should be, of little importance or concern to others.

[Andrea84]

Thanks for the replies, you certainly put my mind at ease. If I buy one I know that I have a lot to learn in regards to caring and cleaning the instrument as I was never really knowledgeable in that area when I played my alto, perhaps the person who used it before me wasn't either if it was in that corroded condition.

Well I just got back from the music store and tested the Antigua sop. Unfortunately it was not a black one so I was unable to see that finish in person but the gold one is also a beautiful instrument. The sop sounded good, felt easier to play then my Unison rental, however I was awfully sharp because I was unable to push my mouthpiece all the way down on the new cork. Like I said in my first post, the intonation was hard for me to judge seeing as I've only been playing the sop for 4 days and my intonation is not very good to begin with, I also did not play the Antigua for very long seeing as all I can play is a scale. I am not sure what model it was, it had the two necks and he told me the "street price" for that one is around $1200.00. Which I thought was rather quite high compared to Kessler's prices.

I will be planning on talking about brands when the time comes with my soon to be instructor once we set something up but the Antigua is definetly at the top of my list.

Andrea.

[goodsax]

Pushing the mpc down farther on the cork would make you even more sharp, not less. If the dealer was even close to being correct, you must have been playing an Antigua 590LQ, the best sop value out there, in my opinion. But, you're right, Kessler has that price beat by a lot, and you get service that is second to none.

[Randall]

Hi Andrea,
Rob is exactly right...just remember:
Push in when flat, Pull out when sharp.

Also, may I recommend that you use around a #3 reed (I like the Alexander Superials) when you try out the horn.
It will give you a better chance at playing in tune. :)

[Andrea84]

That's right, I forgot that you pull out when sharp, I'm just getting back into things here. Guess I got confused about everyone saying their mouthpiece is usually pushed all the way down on their antigua sops. Maybe I just have a bad ear but it sounded awfully sharp to me and there was quite a bit of cork showing.

Thanks for the tips about reeds. I will eventually get a harder reed but for the moment i'm playing on a rico #2 just to get reacqainted with things again.

Andrea.

[DaveKessler]

Andrea,

Make sure that you are trying the horn with a GOOD mouthpiece. THe stock mouthpiece that Antigua includes will lead to all sorts of misconceptions about their horns in both the areas of intonation and tone quality. Also, make sure that any Antigua you try out has a serial number that starts with "YS". this ensures that you are playing on the current Yanagisawa based designs.

As for parts, to be honest, we have yet had to replace a part (short of pad or spring) on the body of the new Antigua sopranos... and considerding how many I have sold over the past 3+ years, thats quite good. I have had to order 2 necks but Antigua got them right out to me.

If there is a part that needs to be ordered, it sometimes can be a hassle with Antigua... because if they do not have the part, it can take some time. I have had some parts (mainly for their trumpets) that took over 6 months to get. While this is no where near the norm for Antigua, it is always something that I keep in mind.

However, this is a chance with ANY brand. I have had a Selmer Paris #3 valve for one of their top trumpets on order now since January. So any manufacturer CAN have that issue.

The big thing is that Antigua Does stock parts. If they did not stock any at all, then they would not have me as a dealer.

[Dave Dolson]

Dave Kessler: You are in a much better position than I am to know about parts-availability, but from a consumer perspective, I will corroborate that even the Big Four can be slow in providing parts. I once dropped and bent the bell-key guard on my SC902. It took over ten months to obtain a new one from the U.S. distributor. So, concern about Antigua's ability to supply parts would be a non-issue for me. DAVE

[goodsax]

I don't know if recent management changes affected this, but Paul Coats reported on his visit to the Antigua Winds USA HQ in San Antonio, TX some time ago and one of the items I recall him emphasizing was the strong post-sales support, including parts availability, he noticed while there. (If you're reading this Paul, and I'm not recollecting it correctly, please let us know.)

[DaveKessler]

They claim over the phone that they are doing better in this regards... but we will see. In the end, they do not want to stock quantity of every part for every horn they make... so the trick is, for any manufacturer, to figure out which parts they will need for replacement and then order those.