YAS-62 04 Alto Sax : Great price and service on a great horn

There are a lot of really good altos in the price competitive professional category. Eastman and P.Mauriat at the lower end of the price spectrum are fine horns. For a little more the Yamaha 62 and Yanagisawa AOW1 are great horns. Both the Yamaha and Yani have great response and a great sound but the layout of the keys on the Yamaha felt more natural than the Yani, that is much closer to the layout on the Buffet Crampon student horn I played on. So the Yamaha got the nod. And even though the Yamaha Custom 82Z and 875EX were not in my price range, I thought the 62 played better than either. I did not get a chance to play the Elite range of the Yanagisawas. The YAS-62 is an easy choice with little risk of regret.