[rebecka77]

My husband won an auction on Ebay, it´s for our son who has just started learning to play the sax. Now I´m curious about this saxophone - does anyone know anything about the brand "Morgan"? The auction says "Morgan Instruments alto saxophone". The auction number is 110169377425 if you would like to see it on www.ebay.com . Pleeease tell me that it at least will work for a beginner? Or maybe it´s this crap that soon will be falling apart?

 

[davevillajr]

Pretty much ANY saxophone will work for a beginner, however, there are a great many that will work better than others.

Your student will probably do ok, but the lower price instruments are not built to the same quality as a more expensive horn, and it may have problems in the future with the regulation of the action, or with pads, corks, felts, or pearls falling off.

With that being said, there is a student in my band class who has a Selman saxophone, a horn with a nasty, nasty reputation here on this forum, but his tone is very good, and the instrument plays in tune reasonably well, so, as with anything, it is all up to chance.

I hope the horn works for your son and he is happy and successful playing it.

dv

 

[rebecka77]

Pretty much ANY saxophone will work for a beginner, however, there are a great many that will work better than others.

Your student will probably do ok, but the lower price instruments are not built to the same quality as a more expensive horn, and it may have problems in the future with the regulation of the action, or with pads, corks, felts, or pearls falling off.

With that being said, there is a student in my band class who has a Selman saxophone, a horn with a nasty, nasty reputation here on this forum, but his tone is very good, and the instrument plays in tune reasonably well, so, as with anything, it is all up to chance.

I hope the horn works for your son and he is happy and successful playing it.

dv

Thanks for your answer, I really hope that the horn works for some time. If he enjoys playing, then of course he can have a higher price instrument.

But I also have another question. I understand that many things can break easily or have different kinds of functional problems with lower price instruments. But the tone... it seems to depend very much on which mouthpiece you are using?

Right now we are borrowing two horns, one Jupiter and one Buffet Crampon. Both of them are student horns, I believe. At least not expensive ones. But the Jupiter had a nasty tone. And very hard to even get a tone with, a child can´t manage to get a tone with it. Switched mouthpieces and then the Buffet had a nasty tone. With the mouthpiece we like, the tone is very much the same with both horns, and very easy to play with. Is it often like that, that the mouthpiece has a very important role in getting a nice tone?

 

[davevillajr]

Yes, the mouthpiece is crucial to getting a good tone on ANY saxophone.

I could be that the "nasty" sounding mouthpiece had warped rails, a damaged tip or other problem that caused the nastyness.

I am really happy with the tone I get when I use my Selmer mouthpieces - very good sounding mouthpieces - for me, others may have differing experiences.

Reeds also impact tone quite a bit, especially if they are cut wrong or warped or cracked, or sometimes they are just a bad reed. Proper, careful handling of reeds is very important for the young saxophonist to learn.

dv

 

[tjontheroad]

This auction ended 5 weeks ago. Do have the sax yet? If not, that's a long time to be waiting. Did you save the photos? They no longer show on ebay. Here's a direct link; http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sid=m37&satitle=110169377425&category0=&fvi=1

This statement in the auction "Made by MORGAN INSTRUMENTS. ONE OF THE MOST HIGHLY RESPECTED, TOP QUALITY NAMES IN THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BUSINESS" is not very true for a sax or any other instrument. I don't think anyone here would honestly tell you they've ever owed or heard of that make. There are saxophone mouthpieces that were made by Ralph Morgan considered very high quality, but not saxophones.

My gut tells me you bought a cheap and low quality horn. The Jupiter and/or the Buffet you're borrowing are likely better quality.

Sorry if this is bursting your bubble. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[tjontheroad]

I'm suspecting this seller is a dealer not a dad with three A.D.D. kids as it says in the auction. Look at his feedback comments from buyers; http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=laserpaul&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller

 

[rebecka77]

This auction ended 5 weeks ago. Do have the sax yet? If not, that's a long time to be waiting. Did you save the photos? They no longer show on ebay. Here's a direct link; http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sid=m37&satitle=110169377425&category0=&fvi=1

This statement in the auction "Made by MORGAN INSTRUMENTS. ONE OF THE MOST HIGHLY RESPECTED, TOP QUALITY NAMES IN THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BUSINESS" is not very true for a sax or any other instrument. I don't think anyone here would honestly tell you they've ever owed or heard of that make. There are saxophone mouthpieces that were made by Ralph Morgan considered very high quality, but not saxophones.

My gut tells me you bought a cheap and low quality horn. The Jupiter and/or the Buffet you're borrowing are likely better quality.

Sorry if this is bursting your bubble. I hope I'm wrong.

Yes, probably you´re right... unfortunately. When we get the horn it´ll probably be hard for us to judge whether this is trash or not though, since we don´t have any experience in what to look for...

The reason why we haven´t got the horn yet is that first the seller was away, and after that there has been some problems with the payment and that was our fault. So everything´s ok. Anyway, now it´s on its´ way.

I saved some of the pictures.

Davevillajr - thanks for your answer. I guess maybe we have to get a new mouthpiece to this sax we bought and hopefully it will be playable for a while, maybe with quite a good tone, until everything´s falling apart... :/ ....

 

[tjontheroad]

Looks to be knock off out of China. There's a million of these on ebay under all kinds of brand names. While some newer saxophones out of China are gaining a half decent reputation, none would be considered "ONE OF THE MOST HIGHLY RESPECTED, TOP QUALITY NAMES IN THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BUSINESS". I'd ask for my money back just based on this misleading if not flat out false statement. Now the seller may be like you and doesn't know the difference either (He sells lasers too). I wouldn't doubt he just copied the text from the auction he bought it from into his own sale. But, IMO, that doesn't get Mr. Daddy ebay seller off the hook.

Good luck and don't give up on getting your child a good quality sax.

 

[zxcvbnm]

They guy that sits next to me in our community band plays on one of these, and he sounds pretty good (better than me at least).

 

[zxcvbnm]

But, you kinda also have to take into account the fact that he has been playing sax for a very long time.