[Pete Thomas]

I learned on a Grafton plastic alto with a ROC mouthpiece and no4 Rico reeds.

Never looked back (well, I did once actually)

 

[JL]

At around age 15 or 16, I started on a '29 Buescher True Tone alto. I still have it although I mostly play tenor now.

 

[Taragot]

I started sax - coming from flute - on Yanagisawa S-800 Soprano, that I love to play until now. Must have been late eighties/ early nineties when Branford played out of every radio. First sax lesson last year ....

 

[soybean]

I started in 6th grade on a Conn 10M tenor (but not one of the good 10ms haha). I previously played the flute since 2nd grade.

 

[soybean]

I learned on a Grafton plastic alto…

I'm pretty sure you are going to be the only SOTW member who started on a Grafton.

 

[rhythmisking]

I started in '67 in 3rd grade on a rented Bundy Alto.

Switched to tenor in 7th grade on really, really, horrible ancient Buescher that made me hate tenor.

Back to alto in high school on a Mk VI that was much better (obviously) than the Buescher, but I never really bonded with it.

Got a Mk VII after the VI was stolen from my first apartment in '77 (yay insurance) which I actually liked much better.

Still have that VII as a backup alto.

 

[JayeLID]

King Cleveland Tenor from 1955. It came with a white mouthpiece, brown ink lettering that read "Revere" in cursive.

It's still my favorite Tenor mouthpiece.....

 

[lostcircuits]

I started playing saxophone when I retired at age 66. Bought a Martin Indiana alto that I still play. I was new to the sax and hadn't played anything since high school 50 years ago. The title of this thread is "what did you learn on". Well, I'm learning. Just a little late, that's all.

Same except that I started 7 years younger. The Martin leaked like a sieve and I got a Shooting star in a yard sale that was light years better and I played it for about 8-9 months while I restored a '34 Aristocrat. The Martin got a complete overhaul but is nowhere near the Crat so it's in storage, and the Conn found its way to a single mom scrounging to come up with the rental fees for her alto (hey, she was a bartender and I got 2 free beer - and then they closed the place and I never saw her again :mrgreen: )

 

[jazzsaxmatt]

Started on a rented J Michael alto and 3 weeks in to the 3 month rental bought a Trevor James Classic II. Mouthpiece-wise, started on a Yamaha 4c before moving on to a 5c after 4 months.

Moved onto a Meyer M5M 5 months later...

Still got my TJ, won't get rid of my first love

 

[saxoclese]

My first alto saxophone in 4th grade was a "Sears Silvertone" purchased from the Sears and Roebuck catalog---probably a Buescher stencil. In 7th grade I got a Selmer Mark VI because in a private lesson Fred Hemke at the Gunnison Music Camp I attended suggested I get one.

 

[lostcircuits]

My first alto saxophone in 4th grade was a "Sears Silvertone" purchased from the Sears and Roebuck catalog---probably a Buescher stencil. In 7th grade I got a Selmer Mark VI because in a private lesson Fred Hemke at the Gunnison Music Camp I attended suggested I get one.

That must have made your day. And also I see you are no stranger to high elevation playing

 

[ZootTheSim]

Been trying to remember while falling asleep at night, hoping I'd dream in Technicolor about high school band. But IIRC it was an old Bundy alto, probably from the '60s or '70s.

 

[BH9]

Thanks for one more opportunity to mention my Screaming Zephyr Special alto with silver neck and bell that I foolishly sold for money to take a prospective girlfriend to the beach back around 1970.

 

[bvandrasik]

Thanks for one more opportunity to mention my Screaming Zephyr Special alto with silver neck and bell that I foolishly sold for money to take a prospective girlfriend to the beach back around 1970.

Ouch!

 

[ShedShark]

Has anyone said "the-fly", yet?

 

[arkinet]

$50 conn shooting star alto.

 

[pitsen3]

63 Conn shooting star tenor.

 

[Off-kilter]

Ouch! Hurts to remember that far back but I started 41 years ago on an Armstrong alto. Very much a student horn, dull brass, no pearls, no rollers, simplest keywork you could get away with but a gorgeous tone as I was assured it was the same body tube as a Couf. Have no idea how old it was when I bought it ( for 50 dollars ) but it had a nice well used look about it. I sold it to a friend when I came across a '64 MK VI in silver with the gold bell. But I kept the Selmer C** the Armstrong came with and it's still in use to this day.

 

[Watsonp143]

Martin student model....It probably was a great horn......

 

[farnaway]

Well if I go all the way back to fifth grade, it was a Beaugnier Vito tenor. In my home-town of Kenosha, WI (Leblanc headquarters) that was the school rental horn at that time. When I returned to saxophone many years later, it was on a Yamaha YTS-23 tenor. I have several tenors now, and one of them (for sentimental reasons) is a Beaugnier Vito!

Hi John. Mid 70's Kenosha Tremper alumni here. I started on a late 60s Vito that wasn't Beaugnier and I don't think it was a Japanese source or Art Best model either. Switched over to a Mark VI tenor for my senior year. I now have two Vito Model 35s (why couldn't I have started on one of these!!!) and a Holton Soprano, because they were kind of close, too... I had a step-grandmother who was a metal polisher in the Vito factory.