why cant saxes be cheap...
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Sounds good until you price some guitars. Some are about like a sax. Pick up a WWBW catalog and price a trumpet. Like buying a Ref 54. A Taylor 46 Magnum Max is $5100. I know nothing about trumpets but at least a sax has alot more moving parts to help justify it's price but a trumpet has 3 valves......... go figure. (I said I knew nothing about trumpets, maybe I just proved it 
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Furthermore, vintage guitars cost FAR more than vintage saxes.Check the listings at Gruhn's in Nashville sometime: it's enough to make your hair stand on end. (I just looked at a 1969 Brazilian rosewood Martin: a cool $19,000. And that's just high average!)DanF said:Sounds good until you price some guitars. Some are about like a sax. Pick up a WWBW catalog and price a trumpet. Like buying a Ref 54. A Taylor 46 Magnum Max is $5100. I know nothing about trumpets but at least a sax has alot more moving parts to help justify it's price but a trumpet has 3 valves......... go figure. (I said I knew nothing about trumpets, maybe I just proved it
Jeez, a Martin is a Martin, right?:shock: Sure, kid.
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You can get decent horns at real cheap prices but you have to be very patient and do a lot of looking.
Craigslist, classifieds and garage sales have been very good to me.
Got a Conn 50M for $25 from a pawn shop and still use it today.
Got a Yanagisawa S6 for $250 from the classifieds.
Both happened in the 1980's but I see stuff on craigslist all the time.
Patience my friend, patience.
Craigslist, classifieds and garage sales have been very good to me.
Got a Conn 50M for $25 from a pawn shop and still use it today.
Got a Yanagisawa S6 for $250 from the classifieds.
Both happened in the 1980's but I see stuff on craigslist all the time.
Patience my friend, patience.
Selmer Paris 6,7,SA80 & Couf S1s
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look at cellos
a buddy of mine told me that the owner of the string store he works at is selling a vintage cello for a heavily discounted price of $200k
look at handmade flutes $$$
tubas, euphoniums
saxes, being as complex as they are seem relatively cheap by comparison
if you want a cheap sax go to Wal-mart, but then, don't expect it to play very well ..... you get what you pay for.
a buddy of mine told me that the owner of the string store he works at is selling a vintage cello for a heavily discounted price of $200k
look at handmade flutes $$$
tubas, euphoniums
saxes, being as complex as they are seem relatively cheap by comparison
if you want a cheap sax go to Wal-mart, but then, don't expect it to play very well ..... you get what you pay for.
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I got a Yani 800, from the Classifieds. A deal feel through, so I called the seller up, hadn't sold. I checked it out the next day, bought it the day after that. Paid $285 for it. Put alittle into getting it fixed.
It takes time. It also has to be a priority. I checked the classiefieds once a week for at least a month, sometimes five times a week. Kinda like checkin Ebay. If you look carefully you may pick up on something before anyone else. It is imperaitive though to know what they have before they know. Escpicially if you are getting a killer deal. I knew the same day what I had, and they had no idea. Patience and research are the key.
Now I check the classifieds every week at least twice. Even though I am almost out of money. Always gotto know whats out their.
It takes time. It also has to be a priority. I checked the classiefieds once a week for at least a month, sometimes five times a week. Kinda like checkin Ebay. If you look carefully you may pick up on something before anyone else. It is imperaitive though to know what they have before they know. Escpicially if you are getting a killer deal. I knew the same day what I had, and they had no idea. Patience and research are the key.
Now I check the classifieds every week at least twice. Even though I am almost out of money. Always gotto know whats out their.
Yes. String instruments are crazy!! My girlfriend just bought a new Bass... 1869, Italian, -with- a label. Lets just say this instrument costs substantially more than the car we drive... And its a good 'audition' instrument. She may win a job on it, but they could very well tell her she has to buy a better instrument to be in the orchestra.
Steve P
Steve P
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That's a bunch of horse hocky! When are we going to be judged on the merits of our playing, rather than the instrument we play?Steve P said:
The average orchestral salary in this country is not sufficient to justify requiring a person to own an instrument that costs more than they make in a year. Any orchestra that requires their people to play on a certain make or model of instrument, as a qualification of employment needs to be shut down. There's no room for that kind of economic discrimination in a free country like ours!
Yep, thats just the way it is. There are some orchestras that will give you a bass that the organization owns once you win a job. The Minnesota Orchestra for example, does this. They have 5 or 6 of the finest basses in the world, sever of which are nearly half a million dollar instruments.
But they real kicker is that string players in the University system are expected to have a good instrument by the end of their undergraduate; and by good instrument, I mean one in the $20,000 - $30,000 range. And there are plenty of people who have nicer instruments than that.
Steve P
But they real kicker is that string players in the University system are expected to have a good instrument by the end of their undergraduate; and by good instrument, I mean one in the $20,000 - $30,000 range. And there are plenty of people who have nicer instruments than that.
Steve P
Selmer Paris 6,7,SA80 & Couf S1s
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Steve P
I read in teh detroit free press that the detroit Symp has beginning salaries of 80k ??
this article says the staring salary is $98.8k
http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6916.html
wow ...... not bad. but bring a string player that would be hard to make ends meet considering the mortgage on you instrument is more than a house ?!?!
must be good to be a clarinet player in an orchestra, or trumpet, trombone compared to a string player
I read in teh detroit free press that the detroit Symp has beginning salaries of 80k ??
this article says the staring salary is $98.8k
http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6916.html
wow ...... not bad. but bring a string player that would be hard to make ends meet considering the mortgage on you instrument is more than a house ?!?!
must be good to be a clarinet player in an orchestra, or trumpet, trombone compared to a string player
Yep, thats right. A bass player friend of ours here at IU was a finalist for the Principal Bass opening of Detroit just over a year and a half ago (along with the professor from U. of Iowa, an OUTSTANDING bassist).
You are right; people do indeed mortgage instruments... unless you are wealthy, you almost have to. One thing that can help is to only buy an instrument that you will profit on in the long run, and as you keep doing so you end up with nicer and nicer instruments without always dumping more money into it...
Steve P
You are right; people do indeed mortgage instruments... unless you are wealthy, you almost have to. One thing that can help is to only buy an instrument that you will profit on in the long run, and as you keep doing so you end up with nicer and nicer instruments without always dumping more money into it...
Steve P
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:banghead: :angry4: :cussing: :cussing:
Simply these two answers:
1. Uncle Sam, Not helping the american people promote the economy by raising taxes.
And 2: Cheap people go over to other countries ("Chi-Cough!-na, Cough, Tai-Cough!-wan, Cough! Cough!") to make their horns, and then our horns become more expensive because they lose money from the cheap people!:x :? :!:shock: :evil:
Simply these two answers:
1. Uncle Sam, Not helping the american people promote the economy by raising taxes.
And 2: Cheap people go over to other countries ("Chi-Cough!-na, Cough, Tai-Cough!-wan, Cough! Cough!") to make their horns, and then our horns become more expensive because they lose money from the cheap people!:x :?
:!:shock: :evil:
Selmer Paris 6,7,SA80 & Couf S1s
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i'm just glad i didn't play strings in HS. though i certainly wouldn't mind being the last clarinet even at base salary in the DSO.
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"Promoting the American economy" (whatever that means) will not make quality saxes cheap. Nor should it. And as the discussion above on orchestral string instruments indicates, saxes are really not all that expensive, especially when you consider the labor that goes into making them, or the fact that the great vintage instruments of the past are no longer being made. Some saxes (MKVI anyone?) are overpriced compared to all the rest, but that's a different issue.ChuBerry47 said:1. Uncle Sam, Not helping the american people promote the economy by raising taxes.
And 2: Cheap people go over to other countries ("Chi-Cough!-na, Cough, Tai-Cough!-wan, Cough! Cough!") to make their horns, and then our horns become more expensive because they lose money from the cheap people!:x :?
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