Yamaha Tenor Sax Serial Numbers
How old is my Yamaha YTS-62. Serial number is 006162, I bought it in the mid 80s. What year is the Yamaha tenor saxophone YTS -23 serial 003497. Doctor Sax Woodwinds, 2100 Winnebago St, Unit 105, Madison, WI 53704, USA, phone: (608) 279-9744(608) 279-9744. Custom Z Tenor Saxophones; Limited Model. Professional Tenor Saxophones. Intermediate Tenor Saxophones. Metal thumb hook and thumb rest. Enter Archived Product Name. News & Events. About Yamaha Corporate Information.
Selmer SBA Alto What Can Serial Numbers Tell Me? The main thing you learn from serial numbers is the age of the instrument of course.
Yamaha Tenor Sax Serial Numbers List
Although the dates in these charts are reasonably accurate, there may be some discrepancies for various reasons. Here are a few things to bear in mind:. Sometimes a company may hold back a batch of instruments and then release them a couple of years later. The production of old and new models can overlap, or in some cases features of a new model appear on the later batch of the previous model. This can lead to what we call transitional models, which have some new and some old features.
A famous example would be the early 30s Conn instruments. Many companies make other instruments, not just saxophones and the serial numbers are spread over their entire range.
So saxophones may not be numbered sequentially. Serial numbers can be used to identify supposedly “better” instruments.
It is sometimes (possible erroneously) supposed that five digit MKVIs are the best. Or you want to play a horn with a number that is close to your idol’s saxophone. Why do people sometimes mask the last three digits of a serial number? When advertising an instrument for sale, you will often see the serial number referred to as 36xxxx. It is rumoured that there is a scam, by which somebody who acquires your serial number can then claim the instrument is theirs.
This may just be paranoia as I have never heard of this happening, nor can I understand how it could happen. Ideally you should have a record of the serial number with your sales receipt and won your insurance details. A serial number can of course be used to identify a stolen instrument. If a seller does hide part of the number you may wonder if they are trying to hide the fact that it is stolen. In most cases the reason is for the one stated above, but it is always worth checking when buying an instrument. Ask the seller privately for the number and do a search for that instrument.
If it has been stolen recently, the legal owner may have registered it with an online database of.
'.Players have been known to say that under no circumstances would they EVER part with their 62 soprano. (That is, until we can come up with something that’s as good, if not better than their YSS-62) As close as we can guess there were around 3,000 of these sold in the United States (our records were a bit sketchy in the very early 80?s) both in the lacquer and silver finishes.
Unfortunately there are NO serial number records available that can help clarify individual production dates beyond some rough guesses. We do know that there was a change in tonehole placement at some point in the production.' I'm hoping to collect a large enough sample of instruments to provide a reasonable estimation to the date of manufacture of most of the Yamaha Saxophones. I also hope that this collected data will reveal some inconsistencies in the way Yamaha mark and identify particular models. The Yamaha SAXOPHONE Serial Number Database can be found here: Saxophone Cheers YamahaCollector. After seeing this thread and another dealing with the previously unknown to me plant in Grand Rapids, MI, I was astonished to think my daughter's YAS 52 'purple logo' (on semi-permanent loan until I die) was 'made' in the US. An 'A' suffix a bit to the right of the serial number seemed to denote 'America'.
A call to the number I saw on SOTW, for the American Yamaha guys in Anneheim, 714-522-9011, works if you select a non-listed option of '0' as the long menu curiously doesn't have a Band and Orchestra prompt. Getting to a nice, helpful Linda, I gave her the serial number, but turning the horn in poor light I stopped short of the A.
She worked on it for a bit, then put me on hold for a long bit, then came back and very unconvincingly told me our horn was made in Japan. When I pressed a little she said I should talk to Jonathan, (ext 9445 btw) where I had to leave a message. Later I left another than I had found the A. No call back for a week. Tried again yesterday, and got 'Jon' as he answers.
Very nice, enthusiastic, and free with his time. He says that the 'A' is simply part of the serial number, and DOES NOT denote made in American or anything!! Any letters as a prefix might denote country of origin, especially on modern horns, but not so on the A suffix. There can be, however, an A suffix to the model number (i.e. YTS 23A) but this would only appear on the box, for warehouse purposes, not on the horn. Thus older horns could go out before those made in a now new location. He said our horn would be marked 'made in Japan' on the body tube below the serial number, as surely any 52 with this low of a number (004902A) would have been made in Japan, and, at the very least the body tube would have been.
Of course, ours has no such designation. He told me again where to look, I told him directly below the serial number is the bow seam!! Between these two calls I was referred, on a parts matter, to Mark, a higher up in their service organization. When I asked as an aside, about the darned silly 'A', he quickly replied that designated assembled in the American plant. When I told Jon that he stated that he would straighten Mark out on that matter! We have seen on this forum that information, true or not, gets woven into our internet fabric of knowledge. I think some (especially younger) employees of these instrument companies may possibly be influenced by this 'knowledge'!
Jon was sure by the serial number that our horn was made before 1989-1990 where, as we have heard before, Yamaha's records devolve into shadows and speculation. His guess was early 80s, my daughter and I deduced that we bought it in about 1988. And, 'made in Japan, assembled in Japan, as only student and intermediate models were assembled in Michigan!' ' Well, isn't the 52 an intermediate??!!' 'Well, way back then the 52 was equivalent to almost all other maker's pro horn at the time, and, we don't field very many questions about the 52'.
OK-I'm retired and have endless time to spend on geeky details (inquiring minds want to know) but am becoming convinced that NO ONE.Really.Knows. To invoke my favorite saying developed during thirty year of used car selling-'It is what it is!' You want head spinning, go research sixties Gibson guitars!! My YTS 61 which I bought new in 1978 in Arizona has an A after the serial # (the number is on the lower part of the back of the body). It has a purple logo stamp with Yamaha and Japan under it, surrounded by engraving on the right side of the bell and full engraving on the front and both sides of the bell down to where the bell is connected to the crook of the body.The number is 0121xxA.
Japan is not engraved on the horn at all, just indicated by the printed on Purple Logo. I don't recall the salesman ever saying anything about being assembled in America. Yes, Now that I look at my purplish-magenta logo on the horn (post ten above) it has the Yami logo (the three tuning forks), in large print 'Yamaha' and underneath, in smaller letters, 'Japan', with absolutely no engraving, anywhere. We probably have all seen bell information with the country the home offices of the manufacturer, with a different 'made in ' country elsewhere, such as the Ida Maria Grassi logo looking identical to that of the original owning company, save for the words 'made in', just saying 'Italy'. The new owners, Proel, will give you the information about its Asian origins stamped on the back! On mine I'm going with Japan and I'm sticking to it. It really only matters if you're selling it, it won't change how it plays or sounds.
Yamaha Tenor Saxophone
The 'shed' however, will. I'm going there now.