[andre251]

I stopped at a pawn shop today between lessons. I am going to a conference in San Antonio tomorrow so I had to do a bunch of lessons in a row between schools I don’t normally do. I ended up taking a road I don’t normally take, so I stopped at a pawn shop I had not seen before

I always look for horns at pawn shops hoping to hit the jackpot some day

Today was that day.


There was a Yamaha 23 alto and Yamaha 23 tenor, both in good condition, both made in japan. I thought it was unusual that the alto seemed to have almost all brand new pads. Well, I have two students who are beginners who need a better alto. The price was $299 and I asked for $250 out the door. I explained that I buy cheap and sell at cost so they were okay with the offer and accepted. I play tested the alto because I had my horn in the car as I was between lessons. I also play tested a Meyer alto mouthpiece inside the case. The mouthpiece played great but didn’t give it too much thought. Of course if it was one of the valuable mouthpieces it wouldn’t just be in the case with the internet nowadays.

I packed the sax up and purchased.

I brought the sax to my very next student to try as they were one of the ones who needed a beginner sax upgrade.

After the lesson, I inspected the mouthpiece more closely and was shocked and surprised when I realized it said “6 Meyer lapped facing M” inside of a diamond and on the other side “New York USA”. I let out an audible “holy $hit” inside of the middle school and went to the internet to confirm.


$250 for a Yamaha 23 with almost all new pads and a Meyer New York (series V, phase B apparently). Today I got my lucky saxophone story.

:-D

 

[Dr G]

Did you offer to trade the student a shiny new Yamaha 4C for that old Meyer? :mrgreen:

Congrats on the find. May it serve you well.

 

[andre251]

I got to meet Randy Jones and play the Tenor Madness session tenor today. (Holy crap that horn is incredible!)
Afterwards, I told him this story and he was very jealous and told all the guys at the booth. He inspected it and said it looks like original condition.

I might post some pictures, the thing looks pristine!

The sad part about all of this is that I have literally played it for about five minutes total since I got it. I am sitting here at the TMEA convention having dinner and wishing I could do some more play testing!
:-/

I saw Jody Epsina briefly and want to show it to him to see what he thinks.

 

[sdpeters]

Andre-
I now know how you feel. Today was my lucky day.
I just got a Grenadier tenor (most likely a 1960s R&C stencil). Paid $190 for it on EBay. Gorgeous condition. It even came with the receipt from its 1978 overhaul and doesn't appear to have been played much since.
Of course it came with extras. Tons of brand new Enduro plastic reeds and the obligatory mouthpiece
- a genuine Meyer New York USA 7M Medium Chamber!:yikes!:
It's not perfect, it has teeth indents near the tip. But the 7 tip is right in my wheelhouse and, just a wild guess, it's probably worth more than the sax.
I'm not sure what I'm ultimately going to do with it. Selling it sounds rather tempting right now. Lord knows I could use the money.
But, for the time being, I'm going to play it with every reed I have and on all four tenors I have in rotation til I find the perfect match and see just what makes a New York Meyer so desirable. (My first taste with a Java Red 2 is giving me a pretty good idea, though.)
Hope you enjoyed yours. I know I'll be enjoying mine for a while at least.

 

[Sigmund451]

Free horns (and extra) are good things! Congrats!

 

[A Greene]

Nothing like finding sweet case candy. Enjoy.

 

[rzzzzz]

i had a near identical experience (buying a Martin Searchlight). i gave the proprietor an extra Benjy and we both felt good about it.