its been a while since my last post so a caveat from the start.

these are my own views and are in no way intended to offend anyone with a
vested interest in any of the equipment I mention here.

saxophones

I am an alto player and have been playing for about 25 years. During that
time I think I have played just about every alto sax out there. I have owned
a 1957 mark vi and must say I bought and held onto that horn purely for its
reputation. It was a particularly difficult horn to play in tune and I
experienced the same intonation issues with a 1954 and 1959 that I briefly
owned. The only positives I could take away were that I made a profit from
each horn I sold and the key action suited my small hands.

I owned a selmer super action alto series 2 and regret ever selling it. It
was incredibly easy to play from the low Bb to altissimo d and impossible to
play out of tune. Interestingly the tenor I had was the complete opposite..

I then bought a conn 6m which I loved. The action was FAST and suited my
small hands. It was very easy to play across all registers and impossible to
play out of tune. A fantastic round sound. The only down side was it always
seemed to need some minor tweaking which not being mechanically minded
always had me taking it to a repairman. I sold it when we had our first baby
and I just wasnt playing at all. It seemed a shame to have it just sit
around.

I now own a 1925 buescher true tone with a high f. As far as sound goes the
best alto I have owned to date. Intonation is great in all registers. The
altissimo is just perfect. For my ideals of how a saxophone should sound
this one ticks all the boxes. It does have its negative side there are some
notes that dont come out easily - high f# being one.The key mechanism is
terrible but I have got use to it now which only took a few weeks of
constant practice.If you like to incorporate a lot of fast overtone
fingerings this horn will frustrate you as the g# etc is not articulated. My
main objective in playing has always been focused on achieving a certain
sound and this horn hits it so I put up with the key mechanism and odd
muffled note.

new saxophones

I must say a lot of the new saxophones all have the same sound to my ears ie
loud, raucous, open with nothing unique between them. The worst one I have
played was a cannonball. It looked great and had a nice key action but the
sound had nothing going for it at all.I'm not sure but a lot of these saxes
also look like they are made in the same location. There are other people on
this newsgroup far more knowledgable than myself on this fact so I would
like to hear their view. My observation is based on the similarities in
appearance for eg the low c on quite a few all feature the double arm, and
the similarity in sound between them all. I could hear a distinct difference
in the sound between my conn 6m, buescher true tone and mark 6. While
recently trialing some new model horns I could not hear much if any
difference between the cannonball, the jupiter and mauriat so I would be
interested if anyone knows if they are manufactured in the same factory??or
whether the sound can be accounted for by the metal being used in modern
horns?

Mouthpiece

I have always played a Meyer 6 and Otto link 6 rubber mouthpiece and find
these work best for me. The altissimo on the meyer seems more open and
reliable than the link. I just swap between them from time to time for my
own personal preference. The link seems better for ballads but thats just my
opinion.

Reeds

I play the vandoren 'jazz' brand which I really like. They seem really
reliable and very durable. I did play the la voz reeds for a while which I
also liked but they seemed to blow out after only a few songs. I've never
been one to study the reed and hold it up to the light and all that sort of
stuff. I just grab whatever comes out of the box put it in some beer or
water for five miutes before the gig and start playing. If its a little
tough I give it a quick rub with very light sand paper and away we go.

Ligatures

I've never seen what all the fuss is about here so cant really provide any
comment. I use an old brass ligature which I have had for at least 20 years.
I cant even remember where I got it now but it works fine. It holds the reed
in place. I have a bg ligature but went back to the brass one. I didnt like
fiddling around with the bg and I couldnt move the mouthpiece on the neck
for tuning adjustments without displacing the reed.

Please note I am not able to reply to posts for some reason. I can post new
threads but not reply so if you post a comment for me and I dont reply dont
be offended.

I hope you enjoyed reading my view for what it is worth. I look forward to
reading yours.