The Price of Saxophones: The Truth You Need to Know!

Have you ever wondered what defines the price or category of a saxophone?

For example, we're all well used to these definitions of "student," "intermediate," and "professional" instruments, right?

And then, of course, you've got those "professional" saxophones that are sometimes 2 or even 3 times more expensive than other professional instruments.

Well, in today's video, I'm going to try and demystify all of these categories and really get into the nitty-gritty of it all, and explain what it means for you.

First up, let's just discuss the business of what you actually get when you spend more money on a saxophone.

I mean, for example, I have here a student Sakusu saxophone that I'm about to demonstrate to you in a minute.

And if you compare this, or put it alongside a professional saxophone, I mean, they all have the same dimensions, the keys are in basically the same place, it broadly looks like the same thing, but of course there are 2 completely different price points.

So what is it that you're actually getting?

So, to demonstrate this point today, I'm actually going to do a little bit of a demo on this Sakusu, compare it with an what we call "entry-level" professional instrument.

That's a Yanagazawa AWA-1 in silver I have for the purposes of this demonstration.

And once I've played the two instruments for you, I'm going to talk somewhat about the sound and the response and what have you, but then I'm going to talk about the other things that I believe really, truly define the scale of what you're actually getting when you spend more money on a saxophone, from those beginner instruments through the intermediate instruments and all the way to the professional instruments.

So let's get straight into it, test the instruments, and then we'll take it from there.

So my immediate thoughts there, just from demonstrating one against the other, first of all, the tonal input that I'm getting as a player, the sort of feedback I get when I play the two instruments, I actually find them both very joyful to play.

I mean, firstly, let's take the Sakusu. I started on that.

We all know it's the student instrument.

So the immediate idea you might have in your head, perhaps watching this video or a pre-concept of what you might expect to hear from a student saxophone, is an inferior tone, right?

And we might expect the tone to suddenly ramp up hugely in quality when we move on to this professional instrument.

But the reality of it, for me, is it's not like that.

You're actually hearing two very broadly similar tones.

There are differences, and I'm sure you're all recognizing them as you're listening to this video, and I'm hearing them as well.

And my take on it is that I'm getting a little bit more definition and nuance in the sound in the Yanagazawa, a little more color, something a little more to play with.

But I'm using the word "little" all the time because we are talking small differences here.

It's not a massive night-and-day difference in terms of the pure tonal output.

In terms of what you can do with the tone, the way you can express it, the dynamic shifts, the nuances in terms of playing quiet or loud, perhaps on the loud side of things, I feel like I'm getting more projection and buzz in the sound, whereas with the Sakusu it doesn't quite push to that same degree.

So when you really stretch the sound and test it out, you are getting those advantages with the Yanagazawa. So that's the tonal side of things.

In terms of the rest of it, the actual raw saxophone itself, this is really what it comes down to in terms of the cost differences between the instrument, the two instruments that I have here.

So if we take the Sakusu first of all, and we just take its broad build, the brass that it's made from, it's made from good quality brass, but it won't be the same quality brass that we have on this Yanagazawa here.

In terms of the engineering, in terms of the tone holes, there is going to be more precision engineering in the way that these are extracted and produced on the Yanagazawa.

In terms of componentry, so we're talking the pads, the springs, the pivot screws, the corks and felts, all of these things on the Yanagazawa are of a higher quality, and the net result of all these things produces to the player a slicker action and just a greater feeling when we're moving our fingers up and down the keyboard.

Actually, whilst I've got you here and you can hear the sound that that's making, we get that sort of slightly dull "dud-dud-dud" sound with the Yanagazawa, and it's very smooth from the point of being here to pressing the key all the way down.

You get this very smooth and defined action.

I'm not saying it's not smooth with the Sakusu.

It's a very good instrument, and actually that does feel pretty good to me, but it's just, you might say, just slightly clackier, but still a very good quality student instrument.

But there is a difference when we move our fingers up and down.

So really, when it comes down to it, the difference comes down to the playability of the instrument.

If you are playing at a, perhaps, a higher level and you are looking to have an instrument that's going to support that ability that you have, you will find that you will get more from an instrument like this Yanagazawa in terms of playability, what you're getting on the actual keyboard, compared to what you will get on a student instrument.

But back to the point about the sound.

The raw sound to the listener is broadly similar.

If there's a Venn diagram, the two are heavily crossing over in terms of the actual quality of the tone.

And then just bringing into the whole equation an intermediate saxophone, well, it's exactly that.

It sits directly in between the two instruments in terms of the quality that has been applied to that instrument during the manufacturing process.

So largely those intermediate instruments take the basic structure and mechanism that you might see on a student instrument like this, but the manufacturers think, "Okay, what can we tweak to up the price of the instrument and therefore define it as an intermediate instrument?"

And again, it comes down to some of those things I mentioned just a moment back.

It might mean improving the quality of the pads, or the springs, or the corks, or perhaps putting more effort into the quality of the neck or the neck receiver, because this bit up here is so fundamental in terms of the overall tonal output and the response output of a saxophone.

And if you make a small adjustment here, that can be enough for a manufacturer to say, "Right, this is now an intermediate instrument."

So broadly speaking, that's what we're talking about.

And actually, I will throw one other thing into the mix here in terms of that progression from student to professional instruments, and that is the intonation.

A big thing that can often be overlooked.

Often when we're testing a horn, we just blow on a sax and think, "Right, how does it sound? Great.

Sounds fabulous." And then we play another instrument.

How does it sound? Great. Sounds fabulous.

But sometimes you need to be a little bit boring and technical about these things, and actually focus in on those critical points where the saxophone might come a cropper, as it were, and that can be around the break point, the C, C-sharp, B. Often those notes can, you can get those wider intervals around the C to C-sharp area.

On alto sax, I often find that those middle notes, the E and the D, they can be slightly higher in pitch.

On a student instrument, and just waver a little bit, be less stable, than on a more professional instrument when you play an E, those middle notes, they don't fly high, but there's more of a stability to them, which, and of course these things are really important if you're playing at that higher level and you need the instrument to meet the demands of the player playing at that level.

So that broadly summarizes the differences between the student and the professional instruments and those instruments in between.

For this next bit, I want to look at what we're getting when we start going upwards of the entry-level professional instrument, if you like, so this AWA-1 here.

Because many of you players, you know, looking to perhaps buy the best instrument that's out there, you might browse our catalog and think, "Well, okay, you're talking about an AWA-1, and that is," you keep using the word "entry-level professional instrument."

Well, what about the other Yanagazawas in the range?

Or what about more expensive professional instruments in other ranges?

What are the differences there? Stay tuned, and we shall discuss.

So you've just heard me playing Yanagazawa's entry-level TWO-1 versus their most expensive one in the range.

This is the TWO-37, made from sterling silver.

And the point I want to demonstrate here is kind of rather like we had with the student to the entry-level professional saxophone comparison I did.

When you take the tone aspect into consideration first of all, again, there's a lot of crossover.

You can hear they're from the same family, the Yanagazawa family, obviously.

There's a very sort of strong tonal trait going on there.

But again, it's not night and day the difference between the basic brass model and this luscious TWO-37.

There are tonal differences.

We do get more of a color and a sort of a richness with this particular sax, but it's not a color and a richness that's four or five times greater than what we get with the brass model, right?

So what are we getting, and why is it so expensive?

Well, I mean, I suppose the obvious thing to say is, I mean, just look at this instrument.

It's made from sterling silver, and these precious metals are extremely expensive, especially in this day and age.

And then, of course, we're just talking about the top professional Yanagazawa instruments anyway, as we know they're expensive.

If you just take their top brass or bronze one, it's an expensive instrument, but when you add the sterling silver into the equation, it really does ramp up the price.

I think it's got to the point in this chapter where I need to explain the law of diminishing returns and how that applies to expensive saxophones.

So you heard me play the TWO-1. It's a professional instrument.

We might call it entry-level professional, and it's a perfectly good instrument and will be for many high-level players.

As we move on to this one here, it's perhaps three times the price of the TWO-1, but we're not getting three times the quality of tone, of finger key work, of playability.

It's perhaps just, in terms of the tone, it's just different, really.

I should say you might say it's more nuanced, more colored, and that may suit certain people, and others may even prefer just the sound of the brass.

So it makes you think, "Well, why would I want to spend three times more on a saxophone if it's not actually sounding that much better, but just different?"

And the answer is, really, it's just about what you love.

For some people, they like to own the absolute best, and of course this is the most expensive one in the range, so that will work for some people who feel they just want to own the elite model that Yanagazawa produce.

Others may buy it for the actual tonal color that you get with sterling silver, because there is a difference.

Sterling silver does give you a tonal difference compared to that of brass, but it just costs a lot of money.

So if that is the tone you're looking for, and you're looking for that absolute precision and just that sort of sweet richness in those quieter tones, you tend to get that with the sterling silver, and unfortunately it means you need to splash out the money in order to get it.

So there are different reasons for buying an instrument like this. It might be the prestige of it, or it might be because you're looking for the demands of that material that will work for you as a player.

Oh, and to my right here, I have to point out another slightly more expensive than this tenor alto saxophone.

This is the gold-plated Supreme.

And broadly speaking, you might think, "Well, it just looks quite similar to a gold lacquer Supreme," but actually when you put the two side by side, just aesthetically, this one does have a different visual to it than the gold lacquer.

But it's not really about that. It's about the fact that it is gold-plated and what that means to you as a player.

Tonally, I've done the videos before. I've compared this against a gold lacquer one, and again, it's the law of diminishing returns.

There are slight differences, but it's not, we're not talking 10 times the tonal quality.

We're talking slight nuances in the sound.

And, you know, I was picking it up, people commented on the video and what have you, but mainly here we are talking about a very expensive Supreme, which is the best of the best.

And if that is your thing, if that's what you want to get, if you want to get the top saxophone, the most expensive saxophone that some will produce, right now, this is it.

It is the gold-plated Supreme.

We're now going to look at what is the right saxophone for you.

So we're going to come back down to earth again.

I'm going to take off the white gloves because I no longer have the sterling silver saxophone on my lap.

I'm back down to the Sakusu again, which is a nice segue to say that this instrument, as demonstrated at the outset, is a perfectly good student instrument.

And for many of you, this may be the perfect instrument for you.

I think at this stage I want to point out that when it just comes down to the raw sound of a saxophone, I've not really spoken about it in this video, but I have in many others, it's so fundamental to get this bit right, the mouthpiece and reed setup.

I mean, the reed is the cheapest bit of the saxophone, and it can have the most dramatic effect on everything.

If you compare a bad reed with a good reed, it outstrips the difference between a Sakusu and a gold-plated Selmer sax. I'm sure we all know that.

But again, we just sometimes have to remember this, that it's very important to get this bit settled first, because this is the business end of things.

This is where the sound is being produced. But then aside from that, in terms of the categories of instruments, as discussed, we have the student, intermediate, and pro, and then beyond pro, as it were.

I think it's not as black and white as saying that because you are a student, you've been playing for a few months, you go on, you start on a student instrument, and then at this point you must upgrade to an intermediate saxophone, and then at this point, grade six, you must upgrade to a professional instrument.

It's not quite as linear as that, because all of the saxophones do all of the things.

And if you can only afford a decent-level student saxophone, if that's what your budget will allow, and you get yourself a great setup here, you can sound plenty good enough.

And if you're getting enjoyment out of it, and if it's working for your purposes of what you are doing with it, whether it's playing in some amateur stage band, concert band, or whatever, that is absolutely fine.

But at the same time, if you are loving your hobby, if you're still a hobbyist and you want your saxophone to take you further, if you want to get more out of it, if you have more demands of the instrument, well, as we've discussed, when you move to that intermediate level or the professional level, you are getting more out of the instrument, and the instrument will reward you.

And if you have the money for that, great, it makes perfect sense to upgrade that instrument.

And then added into that is the satisfaction that you gain from knowing that you have that higher quality instrument, because having that instrument that you perhaps always desired or dreamed of owning can also inspire you.

So it's not just the playability benefits that you're getting, the tonal, all the rest of it.

It's how you feel. The psychology is so important in all of this.

It all wraps into the overall picture, the overall picture of just enjoying music, which is what it's about at the end of the day.

As you can see, I am surrounded by saxophones of all shapes and sizes, different brands.

They all have different tonal idiosyncrasies.

The ideal thing to do is to come and try these instruments, because it is such a subjective thing at the end of the day.

But ultimately, if that doesn't work for you, if you're too far away to travel to our store, pick up the phone.

We are more than happy to talk to you or send us an email.

Again, we're more than happy to chat.

But that's it from me for the time being.

Hopefully this has been of use to you, and I shall see you again on another video soon.