I've been looking at student soprano saxes and wondered if anybody had any experience/views about the following makes:

Elkhart

John Packer

Palatino

Stagg

Sakkusu

Earlham

Hanson (not sure if they sell sopranos)


All the above are below £400. I know the Jupiter is good but it's £500-600 and I don't want to pay that much for a second-study instrument in case I can't keep up with it. But I do love the sound of the soprano and now would be a good time to get one if I'm going to.

Some sopranos are one piece - I don't know what effect this has but seeing as it's the cheaper models where this is the case, am I right to take it that this isn't a good thing???

Any views anyone?

Some people prefer curved or straight necks, that is why the more advanced models come in two parts, so that one can customize it. Obviously someone who is playing a beginner instrument woudln't have so much of a need to change the necks. Out of those makes i'd probably say John Packer is the best. Although I haven't play any of the saxes in question.

Ah I see, thank you! I would want a straight body with a straight neck but it looks as if the John Packer model has a curved neck and I don't think it says whether it's one piece or two. One of the Elkart models has comes with two crooks, straight and angled.

Ooooh, exciting thread. Do keep me posted!!

I totally forgot that you can get curved and straight Sops too!

A straight sop sax is usually better than a curved one! You will rarely see a top player playing a curved sop...actually I don't think I have ever seen any professional playing a curved!

I'm not sure that the shape makes any diference -some claim that curved have a 'softer/warmer' tone, but I think this is an effect of having the bell closer to your ears. Yani make excellent curved sops. With the exception of Hanson (I'm not sure where these are manufactured, though they may be assembled in Yorkshire) I think (IMHO, etc) all these makes are made in Mainland China or Taiwan - they may even be made in the same factories!

mainland Chinese horns have improved no end in recent years, but with horns at this level (or any horns in fact) the best thing is to get your hands on them and play them! Check obvious things like quality of finish, and take no excuses if it will not play clearly throughout the range.

In the ultra-cheap range, I have heard good things about the Gear4music saxes - which are from China.

nick

Well when I started out to select a soprano sax I tried as many as I could and most of them to my tenor, alto sax ears sounded terrible. If you like the snakey in the box sound OK but if you are wanting something rounder and smoother I think with the soprano sax you have to pay more than the "beginner entry cheapest ones". I ended up with a Yamaha. Your idea of a second hand one might be the way to go. This way you may get quality at an acceptable cost . My advice would be don`t buy any without hearing them and particularly a really expensive one to see how close you can get to it. I also found that reed selection and mouthpieces had a more pronounced effect on the sound than with my tenor or alto. Good luck.

Steer clear of Packers.... nice looking instruments, but generally far too high spec for the price, and that generally menas the quality is poor. Hanson do make sops, and if their clarinets and altos are anyhting to go by, they'll be a good bet...

If they ever had them in stock they might be

I've played Elkhart and Earlham Sopranos before and I'd sway towards the Elkhart. The Earlham I tried was a straight one with 2 crooks (straight and curved) but the tuning of the middle C# - D was dreadful. I've had pupils get to Grade 5 on a curved Elkhart and when I've played one, they've been okay. Tuning in the higher register is always an issue with sop saxes though, especially with the cheaper makes.

I've never really played sop - but have heard a lot from people who do. Intonation is a notorious problem, if you're going for a cheap soprano be prepared to budget for a mouthpiece upgrade, it can make a big difference. The other key point to remember is that it's not a metal clarinet, you don't play it like a clarinet and you need to be able to separate the two. I've been told that the clarinet/soprano sax double is one of the more difficult because the size of the mouthpiece and reed are so similar that there is a great temptation to play the sax with a clarinet embouchure or (probably worse) vice versa.

Thank you for all your replies everyone. I would have been interested to look into a Hanson because I've heard their clarinets are good but I've tried to contact them, and not been able to. So I've ordered an Elkhart this morning and I've been promised delivery tomorrow

I've taken on board what's been said about embouchure and I'll try and find a soprano sax teacher who is willing to give me some lessons to set me in the right direction. Thanks again

Trying to play a soprano sax like a clarinet will make the sax sound rather too thin and reedy.
Trying to play a clarinet like a soprano sax will give you tuning problems, as well as the sound being dull and lifeless.

Hope you enjoy your new purchase when it arrives skylark!

Ooh, great news. You didn't waste much time there!!

Hope you have a great time with it.

Agreed! Much as I love Hanson...

Well it arrived as promised first thing this morning, I got it from www.netmusicalinstruments.co.uk and I've been really impressed with them. They got in touch with me after I'd ordered it to say that when they inspected it, there was a tiny mark on one of the finger plates so they would do a discount if I still wanted to have it. Seeing as it was the only place I'd contacted that had one in stock, I went ahead and really it's nothing when I come to look at it. I'm sure other firms would have just waited for me to notice it myself, so good on netmusicalinstruments.

I won't get chance to play it until this evening but it looks gorgeous and I'm very happy!

Yay, congratulations with your new acquisition skylark. Soprano saxes are lovely . I hope you will enjoy it!

Lucky you!! Can't wait to see it in action!!

Just to add to what I've said above about netmusicalinstruments, when I got the paperwork I saw that they'd discounted more than I was expecting. I've just rung them about it thinking they'd made a mistake, but apparently they'd had another think about it before despatching it and decided to knock a bit more off! Wow! (Perhaps they've been reading this thread ) They have real shops as well - Ackerman Music in Hove, Chichester and Crawley... does anyone know them? I'm well impressed!

(I'm pretty well impressed with the sax as well )

I used to work for them! lol!

Exciting news, Skylark! I hope you enjoy playing it.

My son's in the process of getting a soprano (he's saved up pocket money and birthday and Christmas money for it) , and a Trevor James Revolution arrived yesterday for him to try. He was very impressed with it, as was his music teacher. He's trying out his music teacher's sop today (not sure what make, but more expensive!) to compare.

Aren't sopranos cute? I'd love to see a soprillo.

Not sure I'd want to hear one though!

It isn't as painful as you think it should be.....then again I heard it in capable hands. Then again I had an Eb clarinet in my hands at the time and we were into a 'which can get higher' discussion all around us were glad that we kept most of the discussion theoretical.

I played a sopranino at sax.co.uk and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and was quite easy to play. Unfortunately they'd just sold their Soprillo, so I couldn't try it.

How funny! Hope they're as good to work for as they sound




Brill! Look forward to hearing him! I'd suggest playing together at Leeds but I'm not sure I'll be at a stage to inflict my sax playing on anyone by then

At the moment his scales sound fine on it, but the pieces seem to go a bit wierd every so often. I think sopranos are much harder to keep in tune than altos.

I imagine he''ll bring all his saxes with him to Leeds.

They are generally considered to be trickier to keep in tune than altos, yes, but practice I'm sure will make it much easier.

Pratice and very careful listening will help. A tuner is good, too.