Why Buy From Stohrer Music?

 book 1

Note: I rarely have saxophones for sale these days as I am kept busy (and usually running behind) on regular customer repairs- so if you have come here and don’t see any up for sale, it just means I don’t currently have any for sale.  If you are looking for saxophones online, my first and strongest suggestion is to get one from Brian at Getasax.com.  He is honest, pleasant to deal with, loves vintage saxophones, is super knowledgeable, and has a good return policy.  He also has a good deal of my time reserved (he waited like everyone else) and you can have him get me to overhaul a horn you are purchasing from his site- I charge him my normal price, he charges you exactly what I charged him.  

The choices available to the saxophone buyer today are myriad, and once the variables of  price,  playability, quality of repair and the condition of the instrument are taken into account, there can seem to be nearly infinite variations.

Not here.  I sell saxophones one way, and one way only.

What sets the way I sell saxophones apart from everyone else is that this is the only place where every single saxophone for sale has been fully overhauled including a full mechanical rebuild by me.  This means that every horn I sell has a $1500-2000 service that has a year+ waitlist included and already done.   This means the saxophone arrives to you in needs-nothing condition, ready to give reliable and headache-free service for years.  It means that if you take it to your local repairman for a checkup, there are no surprises, no bad news, only the appreciation of a horn done the way horns want to be done.  The pads and adjustment materials have a 5-15 year lifespan with good care depending on playing habits, and the mechanical work has a roughly 50 year lifespan with good care.   This means that I will be retired before the mechanical rebuild needs done again, and every cork replaced or repad done between now and the year 2060 will be better and easier to perform by whoever does it because the mechanism is completely right.

The saxophones for sale here are the closest thing available to buying a brand new- or even better than new- vintage saxophone as it would have been back when it was new.  This is a result of a frequent daydream of mine- what would it be like to walk into a music store in 1932?  Or 1948?  Or 1956?  When you buy a saxophone from me, you will feel what these horns felt and played like when they were new- or perhaps even a little better, because that is my goal.

 

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Selling saxophones this way requires that I do things a certain way from start to finish.  I am extremely picky on the front end- buying only original finish instruments, in extremely clean physical condition.   I only buy and sell saxophones built to a certain level of quality- if there won’t be someone like me repairing this instrument and someone like you playing this instrument 100 years from now, I’m not interested.  Within this narrow criteria, I search for reasonable and fair deals on horns that need an overhaul, and only the best of the best end up on my bench.   Once acquired, I decide how I think the saxophone will play best, and then I do it.  The goal is to make each saxophone play and feel in such a manner that its designers would play it and say “Yes!  This is exactly what I was going for!”.   Then, once all of the work is complete (typically 40 or more hours of labor), a price is set that reflects what I have into the horn and what went in to the overhaul.

This means the horns I have for sale are not cheap.  It also means that I don’t have many for sale.  But they are the best of the best.  And they represent one of the greatest values, dollar for dollar, of saxophones sold anywhere.   And should you decide to part with your hard-earned cash to purchase a saxophone from me, I will not be satisfied unless you agree.