Need to buy a saxophone... as you do !

arushofblood

Any advice please ? Any good online stores or sellers on Ebay ?

Thanks in advance

alanobrien

arushofblood wrote:

Any advice please ? Any good online stores or sellers on Ebay ?

Thanks in advance

According to my better and more talented half, this is where she and most of the bods in the concert band she is in buy their instruments.

http://www.dawkes.co.uk/

wigginsmum

If you have a Costcutter near you and a vague idea about what you're doing, have a look there. I picked up my extremely decent tenor sax in the one near me for £200.

hubblebubble

try https://www.normans.co.uk

I used this site for the first time last week. Ordered a keyboard on Weds night. It was delivered on Friday morning. Very competetive price and free delivery. Customer service was excellent.

arushofblood

Thank you

Not cheap are they ?!?! Any codes, lol

boglin

I second that about Dawkes (posted above) - you get excellent service both in the choosing of the instrument and in the after-sales service. They have their own workshops where they repair and service the instruments. We have bought saxes from Dawkes and been very happy - you can Google and find 'better' deals financially, but you don't get the same service from those.

The sales staff all play and can give expert advice - when we were making a large purchase we didn't want to make an expensive mistake and they spent literally hours helping our son decide on what was the best instrument for him (within our budget). They will shift a little on price by adding a few accessories to the deal - and they also participate in the Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme
(VAT Free Scheme offered by most LEA Schools designed to save the parent paying the 17.5% VAT on all new instruments.) You can buy second-hand from them too (although not under that scheme)

We were advised (not by Dawkes!) NOT to buy instruments from eBay or without being able to play them first as they all vary so much in type of sound and in quality that you have to try them out to know what works for the individual.

Hope this helps!

arushofblood

Trying to put off the inevitable purchase but DS is having none of it ! Dawkes seems to be a great place to go for this, although it's quite a trek down from Warwickshire. Before we organise a day trip, is there anywhere more local to me that anyone could recommend please ? I'm presuming it's best to try out these instuments rather than just buy online ?!?! Thx

Shelanne

I recently bought a flute from an ebay seller discount musical:
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=discount_musical

Service was good, price good and (according to music teacher anyway) quality of instrument was good. I don't know a lot about these things but I figured an instrument for a child?!? It can always be upgraded if they become an expert musician!

arushofblood

Thanks Shelanne I agree with what you say about upgrading later on, as they get older. I'm just aware that the really cheap sax's make for difficult playing which may put a child off for life ! Now there's a thought No, bad thoughts.... lol

nearlyrich

My niece decided to play the sax at school, my sister was advised to rent one to see how she went on, the company she used do a rental scheme that you can change after a year to buy the instrument taking the rental paid off the price. She gave up after a year and they just took it back. The company was Dawson's who I think are based in the North West but they may have other stores nearer to you.