still the greatest, for most of us

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Yamaha YTS62 Tenor Saxophone
★★★★☆
4.3
From 3 reviews
100.0% of users recommend this
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tonsmink's review of Yamaha YTS62 Tenor Saxophone

“still the greatest, for most of us”

★★★★★

written by tonsmink on 12/02/2013

as a comparative beginner [i have been practising the sax for 2 and a half years.]i started out on a CONN SELMER prelude ts710 a very good beginners- plus, sax. being of a nearing retirement age ,i decided that if i was going to upgrade to the proverbial "pro-horn" - now is the time while still within my financial reach, so my adventure began
yes
the first move was to visit the local- sax co-[in Denmark street] shop and have a look at all available and get guidance.they allowed me to try out a couple of quality saxes -such as the Yamaha yts62 the Yanigasawa 901 and various SELMER Paris models and more. then i experimented with different mouthpieces and crooks ,,the result was that i was confused by the variety of tonal qualities .one thing that i did notice was that a great amount of improvement could be made with my humble prelude -just be changing the mouthpiece and reed combination
now armed with different accessories for my existing sax i started reading up on all aspects of reeds, mouth pieces ,and ligatures. I might add here that at this stage i was beginning to think that this instrument must be the most cantankerous piece of metal devised by mankind to torment his fellows ever made .
over the ensuing months and years i acquired seven saxophones.first after the prelude tenor- a no name tenor -nice looking solid but no way near a pro horn,, then a Venice= after much consultation on the forums= again a nice instrument -but definitely no where near as good as some of the "expert"reviews had led me to believe.then i got hold of a Martin hand crafted "for Lewin bros. of London" 1930 vintage alto this the local technician just said nice .nice. nice and checked the sax over for me at a very reasonable price now i got hold of a Hanson t8 again labelled a "pro" horn and written up by the same marvellous saxophone expert on the forums. nice enough and better than some of my other purchases, but again overrated, and oversold- on so called back-up service etc.
now i purchased also another alto- another prelude these preludes are definitely the better quality of entry level horns.[at this stage i was getting a set ready for my 18 year old daughter as well but she has since retuned her guitar] well by now i realized that if i were to get anything at all decent in the direction of pro horns =i had better listen to the advice of the staff and management of sax co =go for the top four makes- leave the also-rans out of the picture- don't waste your money ==they backed up their words with demo's on the super saxes they constantly have on offer.the day came and there on eBay were a list of really cool horns on offer after a lot of negotiating and visiting and viewing and phoning i got hold of a YAMAHA YTS 62 man this sax was spotless the case was still smelling as fresh as paint although +_ 12 years old , was brilliant in every aspect= all for £1200 including two return train fares- one to view the second to fetch [with a lot of bargaining in between]needless to say i got this checked over as well. This time the tech. definitely didnt laugh .He just went into his back room with it and fiddled and blew and heated and aligned and came out and said "here you are tony, go and practice for a year or so and then come back for a good service all should be fine till then at least"
well i paid my bill and took a few months lessons with that sax and let me say one thing no one can tell you -this is -or that is -the beat ,, because you will have to find out yourself and adjust the reeds and mouthpiece and ligatures until you get your loved one the ergonomics will be right ,the feel will be right and the sound will be pleasing.
yes
there is definitely room for improvement in most saxophones however, the top few makes, of which this YAMAHA YTS 62 TENOR is surely one, have very little lacking if anything at all, for the likes of your and my needs of a good horn

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