Thomann lowJAZZ L Baritone Sax

The saxophone itself seems excellent and a bargain for the money. It appears to be a slightly "watered down" P. Mauriat, and is evidently made in Taiwan by skilled craftsmen. Five stars for the saxophone. One (since zero is not possible) star for Thomann's customer service, which is not only non-existent but a massive waste of time due to what effectively boils down to trickery on their part to do nothing to help the customer. Instrument had issues upon arrival that clearly were due to poor setup and packaging on the Thomann side. They never owned up to this and everyone would have benefitted from the saxophone being shipped directly from Taiwan instead. Without doubt, in this manner, the instrument would have been set up better and packaged properly.

Update after three years of ownership: Do yourself a favor and buy another case immediately, as the original damages the bell. The foam of the lid is hard and the space insufficient. Over time, the persistent pressure bends the bell significantly of which I can provide documentation with pictures. I initially thought it was a Pro-Tec case that cause the damage. However, when I started using the original case again, the damage to the bell re-occurred. I stand by that the horn is great, but case, packaging and Thomann service leave a lot to wish for.

I am so pleased with this low Bb baritone. The finish and build quality is exceptional for the price range in that ‘it punches well above its weight’. It sounds great, as to be expected with a low Bb bari. The loss of that extra bell length just makes a low Bb bari sing better than a low A model.

The action is very good, the tone is nice and bright and, it projects far better than my low A bari. The intonation is also really good up and down the main stack from low to upper octave up to C#. I pushed my Dukoff metal mouthpiece on the neck cork about the same distance as my low A and it was pretty much in tune and intonation, and playing out of the box.

The total weight of the horn is somewhat less than a low A which makes it much nicer for swinging about when soloing. Thomann don’t say but the total weight of this horn is 5.48 Kg. I normally sling my bari with a standard neck strap.

I’ve been watching the prices for some time and they don’t seem to be going down at all given the current exchange rates so, I bit the bullet now. I actually fancied the un-lacquered version but the price difference just isn’t justified. There is not much competition out there when it comes to low Bb bari saxes.

The only thing I would point out is that you can’t use a standard marching band lyre on this horn due the awkward placing of the lyre clamp and screw. They are normally placed on the main body of a bari, above the B cup and not on the neck receiver. Additionally, the front auxiliary altissimo key is just a little too close to the B key given the normal side slung, top forward position of a bari sax, but I’m sure I will get used to that.