Yamaha YTS62 Tenor Saxophone

I'm now knocking on a bit and in years, and apart from a few years off, been playing for pleasure, at a decent standard, for circa 30 years. Started off with a student Corton, years later traded up to a Jupiter (JTS 789) and now owned a Yamaha YTS 62 for just over a year - I did want an 82, but I live in China and couldn't get one.

Initial thoughts were pretty good and it did play a bit better than the Jupiter (don't knock the Jupiter, its a damn good piece of kit at half the price)and I could get, most certainly the lower notes straight away - Jupiter diffcult. Upper register OK on all the saxes (I still have them).Then I noticed the poorish finish (by my standards) ie lack of complete buffing on the bell, heavy file marks on some keys and not to say a couple of notes were persistantly, and annoyingly, sticking. And please don't tell me its hand engraved - its too perfect, and I'm a funny bloke who can't see it when playing and its covered when in the stand.

For years I played with a Berg Larsen mouthpiece satisfactorily, on the Yamaha it sounded harsh and shrill, so having tried a few altenatives I've ended up with a Yamaha 5C which sounds average at best.

Does the YTS 62 sound any better than the Jupiter?, well personally I very much doubt it, probably too close to call. Most certainly I prefer the Yamaha as its does play better - but!

When It comes to recommendations I'd advise a Yanni first and probably a Hanson next.

tried many sax tenors and none grabbed me. even the yanigasawas.

They were all good but not me.

The sound

This brought tears to my eyes.

Of course I bought it.

It has a personality, love it or hate it but you can not forget it.

I use a yaganisawa 9 gap metal mouthpiece with a leather ligature and a forestone hinoki ms reed.

I play classical and jazz on sax and piano.

I had a student model sax for a year because I did not know If I was going to like playing one.

I rarely play anything else now.

The 62 made difficulties fade away. Its fast and so light to the touch it took a while for me to know when I hit other keys at the same time.

The palm keys are close to hand and very fast and smooth.

The low range keys easy to press and likewise fast.

The rollers changed notes without a in-between warble.

This is probably true for anyone coming from a student to a pro model.

So this sax gives me what I want in that I can largely play on autopilot and listen to that sound.

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