Swapped Selmer for Yamaha - what a difference!

I am mainly a baritone player, but a couple of years ago a bought a Selmer SA80 II tenor in order to have a complete lineup. Since I used to play alto before I changed to baritone, I figured that the tenor should be fairly easy to master.

It turned out that I was very much mistaken. Playing LOUD was no problem, but trying to play the bottom notes softly was more or less impossible. After several weeks of experimenting with different mouthpieces and reeds, I gave up and put the Selmer on the shelf.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned this sorry state to the guy who has sold me the soprano and baritone, and asked him if he knew what I did wrong. His answer was: "There is nothing wrong with the saxophone or with your playing. Selmers are like that!" - and he proceeded to sell me a Yamaha YTS-82z instead. After just two days, the tenor problems were gone! What really made a difference was the Yamaha mouthpiece - free blowing and a great tone. Maybe I have been spoiled by the Yamaha alto and baritone....