I also prefer a swiveling closing hook rather than an open, "J" style. The neck strap design is a personal thing, however I suggest a comfortable, padded wide strap such as the excellent NEOTECH brand. Specifications: Keys: Power forged for durabilityAuxiliary Keys : High F keyThumb H. In your hands, it feels comfortable, well built and balanced. Use this sparingly, and wipe up any excess. The Antigua Winds Bb Soprano Saxophone is a versatile and affordable straight soprano sax featuring sturdy construction combined with refined styling. The main cleaning components you will need are:ġ. You will need to play around with your setup to find what is comfortable at any given stage of of development, and yields the best results.
Not only is this important due to the fact that I presume you to be new to the sax (or returning to it), and your embouchure and breath control are undeveloped, but in addition the facing/tip opening of the mouthpiece dictates to a large extent what reed strength is suitable. In the case of LaVoz, the strengths to look for are soft, med soft, and med. The LaVoz and Vandoren (Java and V16s are my favorites) brands are reasonably priced and pretty consistent for the money. Make sure that you experiment by picking up a few reeds in different strengths, say #2, #2 & 1/2, and #3. Hands on examination of the mechanical condition (and a play test by an experienced player if at all possible) by a tech will go a long way towards narrowing down your choice.Īre both horns in your possession, and if so, why must you eliminate one of them? The newer ones are CAD copies of Yanagisawa and Selmer designs, although concessions ARE definitely made to keep the costs much lower than those top of the line brands. Those are not as highly regarded in terms of design and intonation stability.
While newer Antigua Winds horns out of Taiwan are actually pretty decent for the money, by the serial number letters, yours sounds like an older model. While not modern and fancy, if it is in good shape and adjusted by a competent tech, it will serve its purpose. The Reynolds is an older student model that is built like a tank. While this seems obvious, you would be surprised by how many forget this sage bit of advice when it comes time to select a suitable instrument.
The real question is how does each sound and play? Cosmetics should take a back seat to those two prerequisites.Ī good, inexpensive, cosmetically challenged horn that seals, plays, and sounds nice and in tune is far more desirable than an expensive, flashy one that does not.