I’ve had my eye on a coloured Alto for a while, and finally decided to go for it when I saw this black-and-gold model on Amazon for a shade under \u00a3200. At the price, even if it only lasts 5 years, I figured it would be a better investment than a games console!<\/p>\n
Unboxing the sax, I was surprised how heavy it was – clearly they haven’t skimped in metal on the body of the horn. I wasn’t able to tell if this was a particularly heavy horn, as I don’t have another alto to compare it to.<\/p>\n There were some slight sharp edges here and there – probably edges from machining that haven’t been eased off with a file (a task that would no doubt increase the price). Nothing to scratch you, but perhaps a bit uncomfortable.<\/p>\n The paintwork was a bit tacky (sticky) when I first unboxed the sax. This may have been caused by not leaving it long enough to dry before packaging for sale (maybe another cost reduction). I think this could be solved by letting it ‘cure’ in front of a radiator for a week or so, or it might have been because it was left in a cold place during transit.<\/p>\n After I assembled the sax, I was able to play it. Being used to a tenor, I found the fingering was a little close, but assume this is normal for an alto. But when I tested its tuning against a tuner, I found it was in D rather than E\u266d. This is, apparently, a known problem on new saxophones where the cork is a bit thick and can be addressed with a bit of sandpaper (see this great video by Nigel McGill<\/a>)<\/p>\n A bit of cork grease allowed me to put the mouthpiece a bit further on, but it was still about a 1\/4 tone too flat. Warning!<\/strong> Don’t push the mouthpiece on too hard, or you’ll crack it, and then you’ll have to buy a new mouthpiece sooner than you’d planned!<\/p>\n A few days later, I was practicing A-major scales, and discovered that the C\u266f was about a 1\/4 tone flat relative to where it should be, and not a semitone apart from C or D. This, I thought, was a much more significant issue, and can’t be easily fixed.<\/p>\n I was able to return the sax, as I’d bought it from Amazon (I would probably have had more difficulty if I’d used a different online provider) and I hadn’t yet attacked the neck cork with sand paper.<\/p>\n I should point out that my experience here may not be typical of other Chinese saxophones. It could be that this was a specific “bought online” issue rather than a problem with Chinese saxophones in general. After all, as a friend pointed out, iPhones are made in China, so the machining must be reasonable! I notice that sax.co.uk<\/a> sell a Sakkusi for around the \u00a3300 mark; if they’re putting that on their website, it must be OK!<\/p>\n In conclusion, I would advise that you play a saxophone before you buy it (which means visiting a music shop, trying some out.)<\/p>\n Update<\/strong>: A few weeks later, went down to sax.co.uk and bought an Alto for around \u00a3750, which I’m very happy with. I recollect it feeling lighter to pick up, there were no sharp edges, the paintwork was properly dry, it was in tune with itself [1]<\/sup>, but I still needed to sand a smidgen off the cork to get it in tune with the tuner. <\/p>\n [1]: Jay Metcalf has a great video about Playing In Tune<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I took a bit of a gamble the other week, and bought a cheap (probably Chinese) saxophone on Amazon for about \u00a3200. From what I’ve read recently, the quality of instruments coming out of China has been improving all the … Continue reading ![\"Cheap-amazon-Eb-sax\"](\"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cheap-amazon-Eb-sax-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n