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No, I haven't played one, but the point I made before and several times already is not that I thave any doubt that it is a great horn.Just as matter of interest. I assume that you have played one and make an assessment based on an actual experience, and that you deem the price a rip-off on that basis.
My problem is with the claim that this is an Ishimori " design" as opposed to Ishimori having commissioned saxophones from a Taiwanese company (they don't dispute they are made in Taiwan) with the addition of a couple of ( more or less meaningful.......most of it is absolutely mambo jambo as Jaye pointed out ) features and their name on it and sold it to a ridiculous price for the privilege of having a special Ishimori thumbrests, a soldered bell, a silver lyre attachment and a special bell engraving .............compared to an identical saxophone costing as little as 1/4 to 1/2 the price.
I know very well that there are many horns " made in Taiwan" sold by companies throughout the world but none are charging such outrageous amounts of mark up!
My problem is that one should substantiate claims of the " design" unicity in order to command that kind of money.But apparently that is not the case!
There are many horns made in different Taiwanese company and they certainly aren't the same and the diatribe involving " My horn is the same as P.Mauriat" fills pages and pages on SOTW but I don't want to go there!
I don't want to know which other saxophones are made at the same plant where these are made! I just want to point out that to get 6000$ you need more than a few hundred $ in parts and work (and both at cost are much less than that) for a horn that essentially is the same as another but cheaper one.
If there is more than those simple and more or less useful customisation ( and I would leave the marketing words for what they are for anybody to judge them!!!) would anybody tell us where this considerable extra beef is gone other than in the ample pockets of the shop?
When a car or computer company has something outsourced they outsource only the making of an original design and they have been footing the bill of developing something special and unique anyway.
Did Ishimori design a new body tube, a new neck? A different placement of the toneholes? ? Who are " Designers" at a company that is essentially only a musical instruments shop?