Woodwind WWTS Black Nickel Student Tenor Saxophone - Any Experience? - Any Good?

[notes_norton]

Hi,

I am going to be sending my main sax away to get overhauled, and either re-plated or re-lacquered. My old back-up horn hasn't been lacquered in almost 30 years and it has turned green, so it won't do (I play in yacht clubs, country clubs and other places where they wear tuxedos).

I found a WWBW student model tenor sax locally and wondered if anybody has any experience with it.

Its "woodwind" brand (WWBW house brand) and it looks like this one:
http://www.wwbw.com/Woodwind-WWTS-Bl...-i1429041.wwbw

Any Good?

Anything I need to know about it before I go try it out?

I am a multi-instrumentalist and play sax, flute, wind synth (WX5-VL70m-TX81z), guitar, percussion controller and vocals, so it doesn't have to be a top-notch horn, just something to get me by for a couple of months. It has to be at least Bundy quality.

It's cheaper than renting a horn.

Thanks,
Notes

[PhineasC]

The WWBW Tenor is actually a pretty good horn. Hard to beat it for the price.

[JayeSF]

$700 ? For a contemporary, asian-produced 'student' model horn ?

$ hard to beat ?

Goodness....you could buy a classic old Tenor and still have a good $200-300 left for some quick tech work, and have a horn 5 times as good as one of these.....it could even be nice and shiny, too...

...hell...even a used YTS-23 in good playing shape should only set you back $500-600

Or...get some Hagerty100 silver polish ($7/tube) a few microfibre cloths ($10), and spend a couple of hours cleaning your backup horn....

[saxguy007]

You never said what they were asking for the WWBW horn locally. I'm assuming used. If you were going to spend $700, I have to concur on the used Yamaha 23 idea. You could get one with good lacquer that was shop-tested good to go at that price!

[notes_norton]

The seller wants $400 OBO for the sax, and says it's like new.

My old H.Couf is so green pitted that all the brasso and elbow grease in the world can not bring it back to a respectable looking condition. I tried.

It was green and extremely pitted when I bought my "new" horn in 1995, and I retired the Couf. A couple of weeks ago I took the Couf out of the case and sadly, all it is good for is a lamp.

I had a good run with the horn, played it on cruises ships, on a beach gig (that did the most damage) and it fell a few times and needed posts re-soldered. Plus for some reason, my hands have always been hard on lacquer and brass. I got my money's worth out of the Couf.

If you know any way to restore an extremely pitted and green sax for a reasonable fee, let me know.

I bought a Grassi Prestige in 1995. I bought it because it is gold plated and figured it would last a long time before getting ratty. That it did. But the gold is starting to flake off revealing raw brass under it.

Although I bought it for the gold plating, I was actually surprised at what a good horn that one turned out to be. Not as good as my old MarkVI or my Couf, but pretty close. The intonation was the best I've had so far, it's free blowing, and the only drawback is the tone was a little too bright. So I got a Link 9 with the NY chamber and that darkened it up to a nice level.

I'm thinking of sending it to Anderson to have it nickel plated.

I play mostly baby-boomer music to the Yacht Club - Country Club - Middle Aged To Retired Set, so the fine points of tone are actually not that important. As long as I can honk out some R&B sounds, that's all that matters.

Actually, when playing those tux gigs, the look of the sax is probably more important than the fine points of tone. After all it is show business and far too many people listen with their eyes.

If I need something mellow for the dinner sets, I use sax patches on the WX5/VL70m and that does the job. Between the WX, guitar, flute and vocals I'd say that I don't put more than 1/4 the night on the sax (I do recall the days when I was playing sax all night, but these other instruments are fun, too).

So something inexpensive and good looking is all that is required. I figure if Bird can sound good on a Grafton, I can get by for a couple of months on a cheap horn. After that it goes in the case for a couple of years, and I wouldn't want to do that to a good horn.

I'll probably go down to check out the WWBW today or tomorrow (depending on the seller). I couldn't go before that because we had gigs (delightfully). We played for the retired Navy Seals on Thursday, for Veterans on Friday, and for the Marine Corps League last night - it was a patriotic weekend for us. Next week it's country clubs and a tennis club as long as we don't get that hurricane.

Actually, I'd like a King Super20 Silversonic, but I can't afford one ;-)

Notes

[notes_norton]

Final follow up.

I tried the sax yesterday. It played quite well, had a decent tone, and would do fine as a back-up sax --- with one exception.

The neck was too loose in the body. With the screw as tight as I could turn it, the neck still flopped around like one of those old rain-bird lawn sprinklers.

So I didn't buy it.

Notes

[MyMartinTenor]

A tech may be able to swedge that neck in snug. My tech has handled several of my vintage horns that way, when the necks became loose over time. Typically he charges me about $25, although once he had to unsolder the part the neck connects to, and that cost me about $50. Still not a big deal.

[notes_norton]

Thanks.

Notes