Announcement, Spotlight on Yanagisawa Saxophones

Here at Presto Music, we are excited to now have Yanagisawa saxophones in stock. The Yanagisawa company has a long history of high-quality and innovative instrument manufacture, rivalling other well-known saxophone manufacturers including Selmer and Conn.

The origins of Yanagisawa as a company were rooted in instrument repair. Before 1900, there were no Western musical instruments in Japan, but as they went to war with foreign countries, Western instruments began to be introduced. At this time, there was no one who could repair these new, Western instruments, so craftsmen who repaired decorations such as shrines began to learn how to fix them. One of these craftsmen was Tokutaro Yanagisawa, who along with Sentaro Egawa, founded Egawa Seisakusho – the first musical instrument repair company in Japan.

The years of American occupation following the Second World War brought to Japan music such as Jazz and Be-Bop, and along with it, the introduction of the saxophone to the country. The Yanagisawa saxophone company was founded a little over 70 years ago, and developed to rival companies such as Selmer, Conn, and King.

In 1954, Yanagisawa’s first tenor saxophone, the T-3 model, entered production, and between 1956 and 1966, their first alto saxophone (the A-3) and subsequently, the A-5 alto and T-5 tenor models were unveiled. Development work was also completed on a low-A baritone model. The year 1968 saw the introduction of Yanagisawa’s first soprano saxophone as well as a sopranino.

In 1977, Yanagisawa announced a new line of soprano, alto, and tenor models epitomizing the ‘Yanagisawa Technology’ philosophy. The manufacture of every single part of these saxophones combined the skill of expert craftsmen with modern precision machinery, echoing Yanagisawa’s motto for a wind instrument manufacturing process that ‘starts in the hands, passes through machines and ends back in the hands ‘. As a result of this, Yanagisawa has earned in the years since this time, an excellent and hard-earned reputation worldwide for high-quality instruments. Constantly striving to improve and refine their product, they aim to produce an instrument that is suited to all styles of playing, with great flexibility that allows players to express themselves in exactly the way they want to play, whether that be classical, jazz, pop, or anything in between.

The 1990s saw the introduction of the 900 series which consolidated Yanagisawa’s reputation amongst players and dealers the world over, and the classic A901 alto sax went on to be one of their biggest sellers at a first pro upgrade level. During this decade, Yanagisawa continued to push manufacturing boundaries by producing saxophones in both bronze and solid silver and indeed, a combination of both to produce some interesting-sounding instruments!

In 2014, the company launched its new WO series alto saxophone, followed in 2015 with the WO tenor, and more recently, the soprano and baritone models, replacing the popular 900 series. Although they made some dramatic fundamental changes to the bore size, tone hole position, and core brass composition, Yanagisawa has stayed true to the comfortable and ergonomic layout of the keys, wonderful evenness of tone, and high quality of sound, further building on already strong points.

We are pleased to stock some of these fine instruments in our store in the heart of historical Leamington Spa and you can also find out more about these models on our website here:

Find out more here...