Description
Ishimori has long been Japan’s premiere saxophone repair shop. This tenor is their attempt to bring their repair expertise to bear on saxophone design. This horn has a bore and design aesthetic reminiscent of a Selmer Super (Balanced) Action, even down to the engraving and keywork styling. But as a modern horn, it hasn’t seen decades of playing and repairs. It also comes with a good setup done by Ishimori pre-sale. This is the unlacquered version of the Ishimori Wood Stone New Vintage tenor, with beautiful Selmer SBA style hand engraving. These are popular saxophones, but I’ll try to keep one in stock if possible! Ishimori is Japan’s premiere saxophone repair shop, and Mr. Ishimori has been designing, building, and repairing saxophones for many decades.
These tenors not only sound great, but they stand out from the crowd with their excellent new horn setup done in the Ishimori workshop. The Ishimori New Vintage tenors hold up extremely well over time, and every detail of construction and assembly is optimized for ease of play. The tone on this Ishimori tenor is meant to remind you of a vintage Selmer – to my ear, it plays like a late SBA – not as loud and wide open as some Mark VI’s, but more focused than earlier Selmers also. The neck and the engraving are meant to evoke the Selmer Super Balanced Action, so I suspect that the neck is an SBA bore. The tuning is excellent. This body tube is designed to have the high F# tone hole present, so it tunes well with the high F#, and that’s also just a convenient feature. The finish is a stable patina applied to the bare brass. While it will continue to change in appearance somewhat, it will basically look like this. You get the bare brass finish plus a great unique look to the horn that ages well – much nicer than the completely shiny unlacquered finish that Yamaha does. This looks really classy.
Ishimori New Vintage tenors play so effortlessly, they sell themselves. Every time one comes in the shop, it sells almost immediately. There’s one in stock at the moment! Get it now!
See below for our videos on the Ishimori New Vintage Tenor featuring some sound samples on a range of mouthpieces, and an unboxing video.
Walter Kopacz –
I have two of these saxophones, AFWOF Unlacquered and the VL Lacquered. They are beautiful, each in their own way, lacquered vs non. I found the ergonomics perfect for “my” large (my glove size) hands. After the “search” we all go through, for “me”, along with 3 different GS Mouthpieces (which concluded the dreaded mpc search), I finally have my warm dark sound, and it is soooo good. I’ve had 3 Mark VI’s, the Conns, the SDA’s, ect…, I sold all of them and now just have the 2 Ishi saxes, that’s how much I like them. Off subject, I also sold all my mpc’s because of the free blowing, let me be me qulity of my Gs Mouthpieces (and I had some nice, expensive, big name ones). I am lucky, I found the perfect set up for “me”. I owe it to Get A Sax, and Brian Curry’s mouthpieces. My but one regret with the purchases I have made at Get A Sax, and that is simply and sadly, that I didn’t hear of them earlier. Their advice and professional expertise, would have saved me a lot of time and money, and we’ve all been there. I believe your satisfaction will be as mine, for I personally, have found new joy and life in my playing with my GS Mouthpiece alone; the Ishimori Sax (and I can say either one) was just a curiosity purchase that blindsided me with the sax of “my” dreams, don’t be surprised, if it is turns out to be yours also.