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Antigua ProOne tenor questions

11K views 29 replies 10 participants last post by  saxmsy 
#1 ·
Hello,

I'm interested by this sax. I've read lot of things on it, and listened to some videos, and even had a mail discussion with M. Ponzol about it.
I still have some questions:

How does it weights? I've read some people finds it's heavy. I think 3.5 kg should be max for my neck.

Concerning ergos, do they improved pearls sharpness of first releases? I've read too some players feel they were sharp on edge.

About finish, how does it stands over time? I've seen some pics which show pretty bad lacquer tarnish over engraving. Is this common on this sax?

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/windbros/10007410/ especially this pic http://image.rakuten.co.jp/windbros/cabinet/02960656/imgrc0065357962.jpg

Players who played it for a while, what's your feelings about it, still satisfied with it?

Thanks in advance for answers.
 
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#3 ·
@Jazziswaswillbe , you wrote you comment WITHIN the quote box, if you do that you comment becomes visually invisible and collapsed in the curtain quote box, always write comments outside the quote box.

@Janosax

find some comments here


I tried this saxophone briefly and failed to see what the fuss of the triple arms and rolled toneholes at the bottom was about.
 
#10 ·
As Milandro said, "failed to see what the fuss of the triple arms and rolled tone holes at the bottom was about ".
Maybe they are easier to adjust using the screws than manually bending keys if they get out of whack. But they are firmly made and never needed any adjustments.

I used to own a few Keilwerths (SX90r) over the years, but I sold them long ago. After a 3 year hiatus I decided to buy a tenor again. It was the Antigua ProOne.
I leaned towards this sax because Peter Ponzol co-designed this horn. He has also a link to Keilwerth. The key work definitely leans more towards the Keilwerth layout than the Selmer tight action keys. Intonation is great. Tone and focus is difficult to say for me. It depends on yourself, mpc and reed. It has a big bottom end.
I also love the ergonomics. The horn is well built.
It is my main horn because it's the only tenor I own for the moment. When I ever upgrade I will definitely keep it as a backup horn. I will never sell it.
 
#13 ·
@Jazziswaswillbe

You can write all you want and then click on quote the message that you are responding to the system in that case will add automatically the quote (to the bottom part) or otherwise you quote first and then write your comment outside the quote box.

Peter ponzol has had more cooperations with makers than probably any other player.

Some of them lated only months (like with Borgani) despite liking the Ponzol Keilwerth I am less convinced by the Pro One. There are also other PP saxophones out there which are Asian made but probably not made by Antigua.
 
#16 ·
I picked up a Pro One as a backup. Pleasantly surprised. Darker than my SA80III but with easier altissimo. The trident adjuster came in handy for adjusting a slight leak on the low C. Feels kind of large overall. Absolutely love the finish. Speaks really well - very easy subtones. All in all - very happy indeed.
Took some photos yesterday as we have a nice blanket of cherry blossoms on our driveway.






 
#18 ·
nice pictures, beautiful horn, I still think the triple arm simply make the horn heavier and offer a solution to a problem that isn't there (most saxophones with a single arm close just fine if well adjusted)
Thanks! Appreciate the kudos and perspective.

The horn does feel heavy overall. Personally the trident arms saved me a trip to my tech so while not essential- they came in handy.

My favorite thing about it may be the mixed straight and RTH construction. I've always liked the Keilwerth / 10m sound but weirdly struggled with altissimo on KW / Conn RTH tenors vs Yamaha, Selmer etc. My unscientific guess is that RTH everywhere may be a detriment to my personal playing peccadilloes.

Clearly I need better technique but this horn has easy access to altissimo and the slightly darker timbre I've been leaning towards. 2nd only to the Ishimori tenor I played at their shop for altissimo and ease of sound production.
 
#22 ·
Interesting that several of you are comparing this to Keilwerth. Come to think of it - I do like the Keilwerth sound but do not care for the ergos and for some reason had more difficulty playing altissimo on the SX90R in both tenor and alto. More of an issue on tenor IIRC but it's been a while.

I always felt that the KW horns felt too big in my hands. My VI and 62 felt just right and the SBA/BA altos feel almost too small.
In any event I remain a fan of the Pro One. Normally I've got GAS big time but really don't feel the need to even look at any other horn unless someone wants to trade an Ishimori tenor for the Pro One. The one I played in the Ishimori shop in Tokyo was just the best thing I have ever played period. :)
 
#23 ·
I had a similar experience when I bought my Barone 12 years ago. I hardly play my 875 Custom these days preferring many of the characteristics of the Barone, although like your Pro One it's the heaviest tenor I own. Several months back when Quinn was selling that whole load of Antigua horns cheap I was tempted to pick one up but I just couldn't justify it even with the near fire-sale prices he was selling them at.
 
#24 ·
Several months back when Quinn was selling that whole load of Antigua horns cheap I was tempted to pick one up but I just couldn't justify it even with the near fire-sale prices he was selling them at.
I know Quinn was selling a lot of Antigua Winds saxophones but I don't recall that any ProOne models were offered....did he have some listed during this sale?
 
#28 ·
I bought a Powerbell tenor last year after reading the post by JohnInDenver. I was actually looking for a used Pro horn locally (like YTS-62) but the deals by Quinn was too good. Initially I was checking with Quinn on the Pro one tenor but I didn't buy it right away bc I wanted to check one Yamaha 62 locally. That 62 didn't look good when I checked it, and when I asked Quinn again for the Pro one tenor, it was sold. So I ended up with a Powerbell with a crazy low price. This is actually my second Antigua horn as 10 years ago I bought my first soprano (Antigua SS3286) from Kessler so I knew the brand.

I am quite surprised that Antigua has been low profile in the past few years. Every dealer seems to sell them as closeout sale (including Kessler). Even one of the biggest sax shop in my city who used to carry Antigua no longer sell them. Antigua gained its name about 10 years ago and they owed big thanks to Kessler who used to be the only US dealer for them. But I am under an impression that while some of other Taiwanese companies are catching up (like Trevor James, Eastman, etc), Antigua seemed going backward. I still subscribed their FB page and they are quite active on FB. A few months ago I did hear from a local well known tech comment on Antigua that he noticed that their quality have been kind of going down in the past few years and they have been getting more issues than before.
 
#29 ·
If my posting influenced you to buy the Antigua, I hope you are happy with it! I am certainly happy with my PowerBell tenor. I wonder what kind of issues your local well-known tech is seeing with Antiguas. Did he mention anything specific that I can look out for? For the moment, I would describe mine as rock-solid, and I hope yours is too!
 
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