Back in my marching days some 20 years ago (am I that old now?!) I marched both a Bundy II and a YAS-23 (I would never have considered marching a pro horn, even for competition) . . . between the two, I preferred YAS-23 for comfort of the fingerboard as well as intonation.

I have two altos. The one I've been playing is Selmer 80 Series II alto. The second is my first sax which I bought new, a Conn 50 series student model made in 1964 which has been in the case unopened since 1967 when the teacher said I had graduated to a better horn. I also switched to tenor because I thought they looked cool. Since it had been in the case so long I was thinking a few weeks ago that it needed to be thrown out. But it looked fine, the lacquer was almost perfect. The only damage I could find was that the nickle silver keys had tarnished a bit. So I got some cork grease and a reed and started to play it. I don't know if the sax has changed or I have, but student 50 had a totally different tone as I remembered. It used to have a loud brassy wake up the neighbours tone and now it has an amazing mellow tone that stays the same from forte to piano, it was a delight to play. What's worse is that I can't reproduce the same on my Selmer Series 80, that cost mega bucks. What's more the dreaded high F sharp gave a better tone on the Conn than the Selmer. I am beginning to wonder if there really is that much difference between an expensive horn and a cheaper one? I don't pretend to be a great musician, I'm not, the Selmer was an ego buy. But the difference of tone between the two is so significant that everyone I've played both for prefer the tone of the 50 Conn.