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Sunday, April 09, 2006
$1,800 poorer...
but proud owner of a Antigua Winds Soprano Saxophone!!
Went shopping for a saxophone (although at one point, tempted to get a cheap 2nd hand oboe) with some band friends and calvin. My band friends, especially Ozaki-san and Aizawa-san, really helped a lot, the former bringing me to a cool shop called DAC at Shin-Okubo, where I could try any instruments without bringing anything. Imagine, I tried the oboe, and the shop actually provided me a 3000 yen (45 SGD) hand-made reed to try the instrument with! Good service siah!
I started the day with a 200k yen (3k SGD) budget, and Ozaki-san and Aizawa-san were so kind as to research up what are the possibilities that was available to me. Perhaps the best help I got was that Aizawa-san roped in her saxophone teacher - a real sax professional - to help find and introduce good but cheap instruments for me. On her recommendation, I tried out Yamaha's YSS-475, which wasn't very good, sad to say. I also tried the Yanagisawa's S991, and an expensive Selmer S-III, just to test out the difference, at DAC, and as expected, the Selmer blew away all competition. I tried the oboe after that, but besides learning how much I sucked now, there's nothing pretty much to say about it.
We then adjourned to Shibuya's Yamaha, to meet up with Kayashita-sensei, the sax pro, who kindly sacrificed her time just to come down to help me, a total stranger, to pick the best sax that is within my budget. We tried the YSS-475 again, this time 2 kinds of the same model - one new make, one old make. The old make was the one I tried earlier, which wasn't very good, and was selling for an affordable 150k yen. The new make was surprisingly very good! Almost as good as the Selmer I would say. It was that good. Price was 228k yen, over budget.
The teacher "chu-ma" and spoke to the staff, and managed to get the price lowered to 189k yen, a whopping 600 dollars off! Whoever thought that even shops like Yamaha can also bargain? Was tempted to buy it there and then, but the sensei had other ideas.
She promptly walked to a nearby shop called Actus, and found that there was one model within my budget. Actus was a shop specialising in Selmer instruments, but what she found, which the shop recommended, was the said Antigua Winds model, specifically the A590-LQ PRO Bb Soprano Saxophone. The shop said that it was a computer copy of the Selmer S-III, hence producing a sound that can match even the said model. (I searched the web, and some site claimed that it is in fact a computer copy of the Yanagisawa S991, but well, either way, it's no denying that it is great!)
The sound was great, even better than the new Yamaha YSS-475, comparable to the Selmer, and even the pro sax teacher/performer was very impressed. With her seal of approval, and all my other band friends and calvin's confirmation, I settled on this saxophone finally! Furthermore, it was listed to be 155k yen, but again due to the teacher's help, I got it for a little under 130k yen (1800 SGD)! So grateful that she's here. And yeah, she plays some mean saxophone! I mean, can't expect less from someone who teaches sax and performs recitals and solos for a living, can I?
For this cheap price, I got a sax as good as the top-of-the-line Selmer, as well as some other goodies. Bundled in with the instrument is any Selmer mouthpiece of my choice, a Selmer ligature, Selmer cork grease, and a pack of Vandoren reeds of choice. Shen rite!??! A real steal I must say! (so says the teacher of course).
The teacher picked the best instrument out of the available 3, and tested it thoroughly, and handed to the shop to tweak to perfection. If you asked me, I wouldn't have found anything that needs tweaking. So anyway, she will be going back to the shop on Monday to help me select the best Selmer mouthpiece and ligature to go with the sax, so as to achieve the "best settings" (actual quote). So nice right?
Following which, we went to a nice izakaya, where Calvin and I was treated to dinner. I mean, after all the help I got from them, I should be the one giving a treat, but in the end, I couldn't get them to take my money... sigh... so paiseh. After which, we went for an hour of KTV, and again, were treated by them... triple paiseh... Feel so indebted to them... really grateful for all their help. Without them, I would probably have forked out a larger sum for a lesser instrument.
Anyway, one more thing before we part. While walking towards the train station, we spotted a large crowd gathering around a busker. From far, we can here the sound of trumpet and keyboard playing, but we were really surprised to see what we saw. This young guy, he was playing trumpet with his right hand, and providing complex baseline on the keyboard with his left hand, simultaneously!!!!!
SHEN!!!!!!!!!!!
You really have to see to believe how good he was. I mean, talk about multi-tasking. And the thing is, this guy is actually GREAT. His trumpet sound is great, and his piano is deniably good too! And his music moves. I just can't say in words how good he was. Saying that he is the best busker I have ever seen is probably still an understatement.
Too bad I forgot my camera today. If I ever catch him again, will definitely record a video clip of him.
A real good end to a great day!
Thanks Calvin, thanks all my dear band friends, and special thanks to Kayashita Chieko sensei, without her, I would never have got such a great instrument.
Thanks!
posted by winz at 2:15 AM
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