it is basically a Mark 6 copy, made in China, by Selmer-Conn USA. The student Yamaha's key work is soft and bends easily, but the Prelude is rock solid! I put my Morgan 7M mouthpiece on it, and this horn wails. I just bought my 7th grade son a Prelude Alto and it's a great student horn! Makes you wish you went ahead and bought the Cadillac CTS even though it's just a damned radio knob. It's like when the radio knob falls off your new Chrysler 300C. Not the biggest problem someone can face, mind you, but you expect that up in that price range that things should be smooth sailing for the most part. To further add to the commentary, as much as I really really love my Selmer III alto, I have to say I was red-faced and white-knuckled when a couple corks fell off during the first hour I played it (new). I'd rather find that ond special horn (sound-wise) that stands out than one that sounds the same as the one that rolled off the assembly line 3 days and 2100 horns ago. The Japanese have mastered repeatability and reliability, but there is a lack of unique character, in my opinion. Hate to see craftsmanship go away, though. I have trialed a good Taiwan horn before, so I'm not without some faith. Is there an AS500 model? I try not to get too wrapped up in anti-Chinese horn bashing as they sort of self-destruct anyways. Maybe it was an AS600 - I'll see it again soon enough. In fact, I think it did say Aristocrat on there. Sorry, but it needed to be said.a musical instrument is not a cordless power drill. Shame on these profit maximizers driving beautiful craftmanship out of this world. I will hold the musical instrument industry in France, Germany and Italy accountable to the same standards the German and Swiss watch making industry applies to itself. He did not go the easy way to make soulless which does not inherit anything. Guardala did a great thing saving essentially the old B&S Weltklang group of small workbench studios making handmade instruments. Now we are making sweatshop copies of the MK6 on the CNC machine by computer and unskilled child laborers and you wonder why a Selmer MK6 can't be reproduced? It is not all in measurement of the bore and neck angle to get a MK6, I think everyone knows it by now. Once the craftsman (Buffet etc.) in the old workshps have been laid off, sent into retirement, they will not train a new generation of craftsmen. Yamaha and Yanagisamwa make a real decent horn technically but again, no innovation to the saxophone there, just improving the process like Toyota did in the 80s. Not to mention resale value of a crappy instrument. The result is a LOSS permanently in capabilities to craft and innovate, take further musical instruments which have been developed in the western world over hundreds of years. I think it's a shame to buy overpriced horns from either Taiwan or China and support companies trying to sqeeze short term proifits out of uneducated buyers/students.
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