buying a taiwan made saxophone

[Cabin]

A music shop here is selling a second hand saxophone made in Taiwan (brand: musicmate bought) and it's quite affordable compared to the other ones available. I've read a couple of articles on buying saxophones and most have suggested to stay away from saxophones made in China. Now I'm wondering, will buying this be like buying a piece of junk? I'm just about to start learning how to play the saxophone so I don't know much about it, but the salesperson says that it's good for beginners. What do you suggest?

[Dave Dolson]

Cabin: Buy the thing for whatever price, then a few months later, buy a better saxophone for even more money and what do you have? You have two saxophones (neither of which is worth much) for the price you probably would've paid had you bought a good, solid top-four brand horn the first time around.

As a beginner, you need the best horn available so your equipment doesn't present problems you don't know how to handle. It isn't as simple as picking up the horn, putting on a mouthpiece and reed, and blowing tunes. Any saxophone you buy needs to be tight (no leaks) and it has to have a good scale. Cheap horns are just that -cheap, and they are prone to leaking (or at least not holding their adjustments for long) and poor intonation (being in tune with itself). You don't need that as you embark on a playing career. Good luck! DAVE

[JfW]

Hi Cabin,

if you peruse this board, you will see that people have generally mixed results with these generic asian horns. Some may sound okay, some may not, some may have horrible intonation, others may be allright. The number #1 complaint against these horns is usually durability, reliability, and cost of maintenance. I've tried a Jupiter Artist Tenor and thought it was a fantastic horn that as far as I could tell, felt as solid as the T-991 I tested it against.

I'd be worried about that Musicmate as I've never heard of it before. It may be one of many non-brands that merely have the same subpar horns marked with their name at the same factory. It reminds me of that Kohlers a guy I know has in his store. It's laquer is very poor and the surface underneath looks ruff and under treated. That laquer won't last the first couple years of use. With that kind of quality on the finish, I'd be convinced other problems would follow.

As for that clerk who's advising you to buy it, what's his qualifications? Is he a woodwind player or a guitar hack? Sounds like he's just a dolt trying to sell you something.

Bring an experienced sax player along. If you are taking lessons, take your instructor along when you go to purchase a horn, most likely he'll be happy to do so as you'll save both of you some headaches.

[Howlin]

Beginners horn.....how long do you want to be a beginner?Good advice above, and find an excellent teacher if you want to excel.

[Gordon (NZ)]

Taiwanese saxes tend to be a lot better than Chinese ones.

SOME Taiwanese instruments are quite respectable to play, and there would be nothing wrong with them for a beginner, providing they are adjusted properly and handled carefully. (The metal is likely to be on the soft side.)

The problem is that with perhaps dozens of names now on these Taiwanese instruments, it is very hard to tell by looking, or even playing, which are the ones worth buying. New names appear almost monthly. and different shipments of a given name may well be exported by the same agent, but come from different factories, with varying quality standards.

Of the many makes I have serviced and played, I would prefer several of the more recent Taiwanese ones ahead of various well known current student brands associated with America, such as Buescher, Armstrong, Selmer (USA), Conn.

[Cabin]

thanks for your replies! they were all helpful :D
so I told my would be instructor about what I was planning on getting and asked her if she could come along to test the instrument before I buy it. then when she asked about the brand and all, she said, just like Dave said, that I would be better off saving for a little while longer and getting a yamaha, or a brand with more foundation.
then she said I could also start on a clarinet (brand: selmer :D ) because one of her students on the clarinet suddenly had a change of interest and wanted to learn a violin instead. So I'm off to learn the clarinet for now. I guess my dreams of playing the alto would have to wait a little longer. -and she said something about clarinets and saxophones having some strong similarity that would make it easy to shift from one instrument to another so I guess that's pretty cool too.