[RedSpotFire]

I would like to buy a Bari sax. I did some research on Craigslist and found someone selling a king Bari sax for $1000. Would any of you recommend me buying it? Also I contacted the seller and he told me I could play test it before buying it.

 

[TrueTone]

Do you have any photos of the horn or info on what model it is at least?

 

[RedSpotFire]

Yes I do I'm about to post them

 

[RedSpotFire]

This is the picture https://images.craigslist.org/00q0q_8GRDcObR70N_600x450.jpg

 

[RedSpotFire]

I'll ask for more when I get in contact with the seller

 

[scrollshank]

Well it has a low A so I doubt that it's actually a King. It was probably made by someone else for King but has King's name engraved on it. That doesn't meant that it's a bad horn. King actually sold SMLs under their name and SMLs are great horns. There may have been others too but I am not a King expert. The photo you linked to doesn't have enough information for me to tell what it is.

The big question is how it plays and whether or not you like it.

Edit: I'm fairly confident that that is a low A horn, but the angle and resolution of the photo make it very difficult for me to be 100% sure.

 

[RedSpotFire]

I'll try to get the seller to send me more pictures later. Thanks for your help. The only other thing I know about the sax is that it's used.

 

[bruce bailey]

I agree on the low A. It is not one of the HN White made horns and looking at the key guards, probably form the last 25 years. It could be a Mariqaux King which would be nice. Need more photos. It does look like the neck may have some pull down.

 

[milandro]

This looks very likely to be a modern Chinese made saxophone .

I am reasonably sure that it is not a SML King Marigaux and who knows, for all this seller appears to know (or not say) the horn might even have only a mouthpiece called “ King” ( which were not, by the way, even made by King but made for them).

When I see pictures taken this poorly I always suppose they need the money to buy a decent camera!

Anyway, what looks too good to be true generally is not good. Cheap baritones are either old and beaten up or they are Chinese cheap baritones to begin with.

 

[click]

I have heard about pushing and pulling keys to feel for softness and play as being a test for poor materials.

A person might bring a tech or sax expert along to the play test.

You could check photos of the prospective purchase against saxpics

http://www.saxpics.com/?v=gal&a=3060

which is, I think the most modern of the baritones King made.

There is also Keilwerth New Kings and some other brands used the word King (royalty being a selling point (?)).

You can hunt these up in saxpics, also.

Personally, the story, price and photo combo would make me plenty nervous about throwing money away ...

[too good to be true story from me: Pristine old Bb bari for only a few hundred dollars from newspaper listing, wonderful horn. Turned out to be HIGH PITCH! Whoops.]

 

[milandro]

Keilwerths or Amati re called TONEKING and New King and they look nothing like the sax above.

Kings is a brand used often by Orsi but this is also not one of those.

By the way King, as a name, is not protected by a trademark for saxophones anymore and any Chinese company might call their saxophones King just like someone called their saxphones Adolphe Sax cie. (the company owned originally by the inventor of the saxophone) even though they have no ties with Adolphe sax other than being a Belgian company

see this M.King

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/M-K...lgo_pvid=602ce3b5-173e-4c14-aeac-442dee29a8c5

 

[whaler]

It could be a King Tempo which would be a good deal. Nice sturdy horns.
I haven't seen a Chinese sax marked King but it wouldn't surprise me. We've seen them branded Buffet.

 

[RedSpotFire]

So it turns out the seller thought I was talking about the oleg maestro Bari sax he's selling this is the actual picture of the king IMG_0601.JPG the seller also says it might need a new neck

 

[donnc]

this is the actual picture of the king IMG_0601.JPG

It's the file name of the picture, but that doesn't help much here - give it another try! A new neck is likely to be a lot of trouble to find.

 

[RedSpotFire]

Nvm, I decided not to buy the Bari sax. Will post another thread about a tenor sax in sale