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Yamaha YTS-62 vs Yanagisawa T901

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25K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  retread  
#1 ·
My wife just bought me a YTS-62 :).

While deciding what to get, I spent a while comparing options in about that price range. In particular, the YTS-62 and the T901.
I've only been playing a couple of years so my opinions are not at all expert, but for what it's worth, here's what I thought.

1. Appearance: Well, they are both beautiful. Actually, I think almost all saxophones are beautiful so I'm not terribly discriminating - not the vibrant blue ebay saxes, but anything in the standard colours looks great to me. The Yani has slightly darker lacquer which I preferred but not by much.

2. Weight. The Yamaha is a little heavier. I have read that many people prefer this but hefting the weight of a tenor is a downside of playing the instrument for me (weak wrists) so for me this was a negative. Again, only a slight one.

3. Keywork. Pretty similar. The key pearls on the Yani felt a bit nicer under the fingers (maybe plastic vs real? not sure I can tell and I didn't think about looking closely/asking until after the fact). I really liked the action on both of these, but for me the Yamaha has a feeling of precision which gave it a noticeable edge over the Yani. There was a small technical problem with the T901; when going to the high G, say from an A, there was often a slight lag in the octave mechanism - I could see it hesitating - which caused some odd squeaks. At first I thought this was me but then I spotted the lag. Presumably this would be easy to fix and applied only to this specific saxophone.

4. Tone. I thought the Yani was warmer in the lower register but I liked the higher notes on the Yamaha better. Overall the sound on the Yamaha seemed crisper to me - I think I've read descriptions of this being a "centred" or "focused" sound which didn't mean anything to me until I tried it. Now I understand what this means but I don't know if it's much help to anyone who hasn't heard it for themselves.

The price I got on the Yamaha was about 10% cheaper than the best price I found on the Yanagisawa but this may vary from place to place.

In the end I went for the Yamaha but it was not a straightforward decision and I'm sure I could have been happy with the T901. I spoke to an excellent local tech who said that from his point of view both are quality horns, but the parts for the Yamaha are easier to get which makes repairs cheaper.

The things that tipped the decision for me were the overall tone and the feeling of precision in the keywork of the Yamaha.

Incidentally I also tried a Keilworth - the EX90 I think it was - and found it much too heavy, plus I didn't really like the keywork. I have been exclusively playing Asian (Taiwanese) saxophones up to now so maybe that was just a familiarity thing. I also tried a P.Mauriat - Le Bravo or something similar - which I didn't think was up to the standard of the others in terms of the action or the tone, but to be fair I think that is marketed as a student model.

I also had the chance to try several different mouthpieces on the T901. I'd tried different mouthpieces before when choosing my current one (a Meyer 7M) but the experience of trying different saxophones on the same mouthpiece, followed immediately by different mouthpieces on the same saxophone, really brought home the point which I have read repeatedly about this - changing mouthpieces made MUCH more difference to the sound than changing saxophones. Changing the fleshy bit attached to the mouthpiece also made quite a difference, of course...
 
#2 ·
I used to play a 62 for years (until, ironically, trying a Taiwan tenor and liking it better). The tenor clips in all but the "caravan" solo on my myspace page (see sig) were recorded on my old 62. Caravan was my Cannonball Global Series.

Your 62 will serve you very well. Congrats!
 
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#3 ·
I would add that you have a cool wife!

Mine tolerates my GAS to a point, but I don't know if her giving me her occasional blessing to buy new horns is quite as good as her actually buying me one...
 
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#5 ·
That is a cool wife, mine is pretty supportive, she buys me microphones and other bits and pieces for presents after heavy hinting.... but not a horn.... yet.

My 75 year old dad helped with my Selmer, for which I am eternally grateful... he is a big jazz fan and wanted to contribute, he likes coming to gigs and singing with us. It is real boost when your family are behind you... my wife never complains about practice time, she just sees it as part of me. (Helped that I was doing it when we met, albeit on guitar)

Sometimes I read on here about people that have to practice away from the house, and I really feel for them.
 
#4 ·
Nice fair review..... I miss my T901, I sold it as it was too expensive to have lying around as a second horn after I got my Reference. I have only just found a replacement, a YTS23.

I had a YAS-62, and loved that too. If anyone asks me to recommend a horn, the 901/62 series is where I point them. Don't get me wrong, I like my cannonball sop and my mates Mauriat tenor, but for the same (or less!) money these two japanese horns just hit the spot for me. It sounds daft, but there is some kind of heritage and inherent quality there, even though it "only" 30-40 years or so. That encourages pride, and pride in an instrument is key to remaining motivated to practice and improve.

You are right, it depends on the actual horn as to which is "better" on the day, but the lightness factor is important to me, especially when standing for 2 hours on a gig. My neck aches with the Selmer, not so much with the Yani
 
#7 ·
Both good horns, ive owned the two,for me the yam is a much better horn though, the last one i played a silver tenor, was really excellent, couldn,t fault it .
Very good for the money, ive always considered the yani 901T to be a good intermediate horn, but capable of more, the 62 is a tested workhorse, and marketed as first line professional, holds its own well, amongst the competition!
 
#10 ·
By the way, I forgot to mention the case the Yamaha came in - not a comparison because I didn't see the Yani case.

It's a piece of junk. Cardboard with a bit of padding, already coming apart after less than a week. Will clearly need replacing before long.

Took the sax to a local tech who found some minor setup issues but all easily fixed. He commented that quality control (from all manufacturers, in his opinion) is not what it should be.
 
#11 ·
edwin said:
By the way, I forgot to mention the case the Yamaha came in - not a comparison because I didn't see the Yani case.

It's a piece of junk. Cardboard with a bit of padding, already coming apart after less than a week. Will clearly need replacing before long.

Took the sax to a local tech who found some minor setup issues but all easily fixed. He commented that quality control (from all manufacturers, in his opinion) is not what it should be.
Click to expand...
This is strange - if bought new, the Yamaha should have come in a nice quality professional case. Yamaha doesn't mess around with quality control in either department (case or horn), in my experience. If your case really is a junker, however, I recommend getting a ProTec contoured case as a replacement. Very handy pockets all around, and quite protective while being lightweight. Congratulations on the new horn.
 
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#13 ·
Well, I came to the same conclusion as saxguy007, tried both Yamaha and Yani in tenors, and ended up with Trevor James Signature Custom, asembled in Taiwan, put together by hand in UK, as better in all respects, plus it is cheaper than both the others.....
 
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