To Stock or Not To Stock

A vote for Keilwerth...

Hi Morry,

In my opinion, your friend should consider carrying a few Keilwerth horns for players with serious interest...

When I was shopping for a tenor, I checked out many of the local shops in the Metro Detroit area and play tested any new, pro level tenors that I could find. I was prepared to purchase a well setup horn from a local shop. To my surprise, I only came across a few pro-level horns locally. Unfortunately, most of the horns I tried at the local shops were not setup well. I had a strong interest trying some Keilwerth horns and was excited to find a local shop that had one, however, it wasn't setup well (leaks and adjustment issues), and even though they were kind enough to let me try two mouthpieces, the combinations didn't play well.

I ended up taking a road trip to WWBW to play test a Keilwerth SX90R Shadow tenor sax. It was still factory sealed and I had the pleasure of opening it up and removing the cork wedges. It played the best and fit my hands the best of any tenor sax I had played yet. I loved the sound and bought the horn and drove it all the way back to Michigan.

It's now over a year old (I bought the horn in April 2006), and I've not had any trouble with sticking pads. Perhaps it is because of a change made by Keilwerth, or perhaps it is because I treated the pads with Runyon Pad Dope just after I purchased the horn.

My new SX90 didn't have sticky pads either.

Keilwerths at the current price range is a very tough sell. You have to consider that you can in many times find a good Selmer at the $4000 price range used and sometimes in new condition.

JK horns have character, but a small following when compared to Selmers. The only way to eliminate the need for Selmer is the own a Selmer. I have a three Selmer tenors and a alto. I picked up the JK because it has the vintage vibe with modern keywork.....and also because it cost $2500 as opposed to $3600 and up for the rest of the JK line.

Why don't you have a chat with Dave Kessler and ask him if the JK's are worth stocking for a small shop.

Their killer horns, but they don't work for everyone. I do think the shadow that was mentioned above is one of the best horns to compete with Selmer, but the price isn't going to sway people away from Selmer and that's what JK needs. These horns have to be cheaper in order to pull buyers.

Cheap asian horns are naturally going to make a shop more money. Not many small shops make money off the high end horns unless they have a customer who's in the dark about internet prices and is dumb enough to pay retail.

Morry, I'm a die hard, rock solid Keilwerth affection ado. I love my JKs and would not trade them for any horn on the planet (except maybe ANOTHER JK!). And I actually have a pretty big disdain for Selmer horns, I just have never cared for their keywork, playability or sound.

And I would always urge a shop owner to stock a couple of JK altos and tenors, if for no other reason than to let younger students come in and play on them from time to time, just to let them know that there are other brands of high quality horns out there besides Yamaha and Selmer.

But the decision for a small shop owner to stock two to four JKs for just those purposes, with the slim possibility of selling one of them every couple of years is a decision that only he can make. It comes down to the business. How long is he willing to hold on to inventory? Is he more concerned with having quality horns in stock for people to play and try out just to get that one sale every couple of years? Or does he need to keep only less expensive horns in stock which he can move every fall as the school bands gear up.

I can say, that I would have loved to see a local shop owner in my area step up and keep a couple of JKs in stock. When I was looking no one in the entire state of Oklahoma had what I was looking for. I got lucky in that I was able to play test some horns at a NASA conference a few years back. But I still had to order both of mine over the internet, unplayed. Fortunately they both arrived safe and played well, and I have a good tech in town.

The other big factor is wether there are any other JK dealers in his area. If there's not, that may be a big plus for keeping some in stock. If he's down the street from the WWBW, then I wouldn't bother.

Fewer and fewer small stores can afford to keep big ticket horns in stock. I recently called a shop in a medium-sized city in my area to ask if they had any Yamaha tenor Z's in stock (they are a Yamaha dealer). Their answer: We can have one here in about 7 to 10 days. I'm OK with this, but I told them I would hold off because you feel more of an obligation to buy a special order. I ended up test playing a Z at another store that actually had one in stock (btw I didn't like it enough to buy).

We're going to see more and more stores opting not to stock high-end horns as people continue to buy their horns online to save money. In a way, I don't blame the retailer for this position, as so many people just go test play a horn at a Mom and Pop and then turn around and buy the same horn online to save a few bucks. (And it's not just horns; people do this with a lot of things they buy today--and it's killing the small retailer, which has been discussed at length on another thread.)

Your right lots of big ticket items are cheaper on the net and it is killing the retailer.

Case in point my road bikes are a lot cheaper on the net then in a store, but the fit that I can get in the store means I'll usually pay more. On top of that taxes are killing the retailer as well. My last bike cost me almost $400 in taxes.

Saxophones are the same way. Who's going to pay $250 in taxes for a horn when they could get it off the net with free shipping. Often times places that have a good reputation like SaxQuest, Kessler, SaxForte' and so on set up the horns leak free and that's more than I can say at most mom and pops. Most of these local shops you don't even want touching your expensive horns.

I've talked to some internet businesses and they say their profit on a $4000 horn is usually about $50. Mom and pops won't even touch that and most of them put pressure on you to buy at their close to retail prices....who needs that?