Yamaha YAS62 alto saxophone ( with Mark II version supplementary review, Nov.2009 )
Origin: Japan
Guide price : £1600
Age of review model : 8 years
Date reviewed : April.03

Description : Yamaha's basic professional level horn, at a price that won't break the bank.

Ah, the ubiquitous Yamaha 62 alto.
These first appeared in the early 1980s from out of nowhere as the YAS61. At that time there were very few choices for the budding professional sax player, you either settled for a Selmer ( MKVII - which was never a popular horn ), a Buffet ( even less popular ) or one of the American horns ( which were rare in the UK, and were not nearly as well regarded as their earlier namesakes ).

And then suddenly there was this 'new kid on the block'.
To say that it took the market by storm is something of an understatement - and to my mind it heralded the dawn of a new age in saxophone manufacturing.

The 61 version held sway for a number of years before Yamaha tweaked it and reissued it as the 62 - though for the most part the changes were cosmetic.

Aimed squarely at the professional player the 62 comes with all the frills and features you'd expect, including a top F#, adjustable thumb rest, detachable bell and main stack key adjusters. All this is bunged into a very respectable case and topped of with a basic Yamaha mouthpiece - which although perhaps too basic for a pro player is nonetheless adequate for a beginner, and makes a handy emergency spare in case you ever need such a thing.

The finish is worthy of note - Yamaha lacquer is incredibly resilient, so much so that it's quite possible to perform minor soldering jobs on the body and stand a very good chance of not losing any lacquer in the process. And when it does get damaged or scratched it tends not to start flaking off.
This particular instrument has a few blemishes forming under the lacquer - but after almost a decade's worth of hard use ( and perhaps a bit of neglect ) that's not bad at all.

Another innovation now widely seen is the use of adjusters on the main key stacks.
Seen here is the Auxiliary B key.
Note the bar running along the back of the key stack, and the two threaded adjusters. These are a boon for repairers, enabling the action to be precisely adjusted 'on the fly' - without any of that monkeying about with strips of sandpaper.
Note too the fork and pin arrangement for the side trill key, which gives a very nice feel in use.

The bell key spatula arrangement is a nice design ( showing more than a nod to Selmer, who pioneered this arrangement with the boxed link to the low C# ). The lip at the back of the low Bb spatula helps to keep the fingers from slipping off the spatulas when the going gets brisk.
Note that earlier models didn't have the tilting table, just a slightly modified version of the spatulas that were fitted to the YAS61. My own 62 has this plainer layout, and I find it very comfortable and responsive.
The G# is nicely placed in relation to the rest of the cluster, though careful attention must be paid to the setup to avoid too large a leap up from the G# to the C# spatula.

The keywork as a whole is beautifully laid out - even players who aren't particular fans of the Yamaha sound will often comment on the layout. From a repairer's point of view, assembling the horn is a doddle - with no quirky mechanisms to figure out.
I do have one reservation about the keywork though - and that is that it's inclined to be a tad on the soft side. Having said that, there appear to be a few anomalies. I've noticed that the main stack keys are easy enough to manipulate, but the bell and ancillary keys appear to be as tough as old boots.
It seems to me that earlier models have sturdier keywork - so perhaps there has been a change in the alloy used in recent years?

In use, the action is remarkably slick. Yamaha have used stainless springs throughout; normally these can make an action feel heavy, but as the keys have been designed and balanced to suit the springs ( more by luck than judgement? ) the result is an action that can be vastly modified to suit the individual player's requirements.
Everything is where you'd expect it to be - and even the palm keys seem to suit the majority of players. I see far fewer palm key risers ( little rubber cushions that players stick on to raise the height on the palm key touchpieces ) on Yamahas than on any other pro horn.
Round the neck the horn feels nicely balanced, and remarkably light.

Proper point screws have been used throughout - and each point screw has a nylon insert that helps to lock the screw in place. This is another boon for the repairer ( and the player ) as it means that the action will stay in regulation for longer, and when the time comes for adjustment the point screws can simply be tightened up a tad. The key barrels are very hard - I find it's extremely rare to have to take up wear here during the course of a service. This is a major plus point!

The body too is well built, with the left hand stack pillars set on straps.
Nice clean lines and good solderwork inspire confidence.

I like the design of the bell brace, seen here on the left. It provides ample support for the bell, and in the event of a knock the little crossbar on the body mount will act as a pivot, taking most of the load.

The tone holes are nice and level - which is just as well as there's very little 'meat' left to play with from the G tone hole downwards. A bash to the bottom bow and a consequently warped low C tone hole will require the attention of a meticulous repairer. Hack away at these tone holes with a file and you'll very soon end up with little or no tone hole at all!

The pads fitted are of reasonable quality, though the size of some of the cups in relation to the tone holes means that some pads are really quite hard to seat. It's always worth examining the low D and C pads for leaks...even on new horns.

Playability-wise, well, I have to put my cards firmly on the table and say that the 62 is my alto of choice.
In the decades that I've been repairing and playing I must have played thousands of horns. Yes, I've come across some wonderful Selmers, some remarkable vintage horns, not a few interesting horns from other eastern manufacturers - and even a few surprisingly good student horns....but not one of them has given me what the 62 gives to me.
Many manufacturers seem to have an 'in house' sound. When you pick up one of their horns you also pick up the tone that's manufactured in. That's no bad thing, if you like the tone - and even if you don't it's possible to work around it and change it with your own choice of mouthpiece.
But you don't get that with the 62 - it has a tone that carries with it a remarkable purity and clarity, it places you firmly in the driving seat, it lets you makes the running, hands you the choices. Tonewise, the sound you get from it isn't you playing a Selmer, or a King, or a Conn - it's just you, playing.

And I've never come across a horn so accommodating when it comes to mouthpieces. You can bung anything on a 62 and it won't so much as miss a beat - though it would probably protest ( and quite rightly so ) if you tried to turn it into a 1920's 'woofler'.
Given this characteristic you should very much think of the 62 as a two-part instrument....the horn itself, and the mouthpiece you fit to it.

To my mind it stands up there as one of the legendary horns, and I sincerely hope that Yamaha never make the mistake of assuming it's time to move on. This one's a keeper.
If you're in the market for a pro horn you cannot ignore the 62 ( though see my review of the YAS61 ).

YAS62 Mark II

In 2000 Yamaha introduced the mark two version of the YAS62. Improvements were cited as an annealed body, a redesigned crook socket and the inclusion of the G1 crook - as fitted to the Custom Series horns. There were a few cosmetics changes too, the most noticeable being the bell key guards - and the change from real mother-of-peal touchpieces to plastic ones.
For fans of the original model there was much debate about whether the new model would be as good or better, a debate not helped by some players having noticeable tuning problems with the new 62 tenor. Things were sorted out and the debate settled somewhat, but there are still players who feel the original YAS62 is best.
So, are they right?

The overall build quality remains much the same, though the use of plastic key pearls hints at a cheapening of production costs - and my personal perspective of the instrument is that it doesn't seem quite so well put together.
It used to be that Yamaha's were pretty much perfect straight out of the box, but many repairers will tell you that's no longer the case.
It's still true, though, that the action is one of the finest fitted to any saxophone.

The bell key guards now match pretty much every other horn on the market, and although I know they're an improvement over the old design I can't help but wish they'd hung on to the single-piece guard. Yes, it was more inclined to get bent out of shape, and yes, it wasn't as sturdy as it should have been - but it looked distinctive. It made the horn stand out from the crowd.

In terms of improvements the neck socket ( or receiver ) is a genuine upgrade. The clamp has been beefed up, and as this part of the horn is subject to a lot of stress it's good to see a bit more metal being used.
It looks good too - like it means business.

The horn is supplied with the G1 crook as standard, but there's also an M1 and and F1 crook available. The G1 is an all-rounder with good projection a clean top end, the M1 is said to be more centred and a little brighter while the F1 is rather more dark.

There are some subtle changes in the action, the most noticeable being the use of blued steel springs - the mark one version had stainless springs - which impart a little extra snappiness to the action. However, this is offset by the plastic key pearls which tend to feel a bit slippery at times.

The really big question is whether or how the tone has changed.
It has, and I wouldn't say the changes have all been for the better. It certainly has a more open tone at the top end, but I found it made the top C a little growly. The mid to bottom end is also more open, but there's a slight hint of boxiness about it...a bit too much midrange boom. This affects the clarity of the horn, particularly at speed.
Even when blown quietly the horn has a tendency to over-present the midrange, and I got the sense of a horn that's a bit 'shouty' on the whole.
On the positive side the altissimo range is cleaner and easier, and there's an overall feeling that the horn blows more freely than the original - and it's certainly louder.
I'd say the mark one is a more focussed horn, and more evenly balanced tonally. It seems to have more intensity than the mark two when blown softly, and there's a general feel of more 'soul and perhaps a little more authority.

A lot of the changes can be put down to the crook, but even with the original crook fitted most of them remain.
It's interesting to compare the design of the G1 crook with the original - on the left is the original, the G1 is on the right.
Straightaway you can see it's a slightly longer tube, and the placement of the octave key pip is around a centimetre or so lower. Nonetheless, the original crook seems to work just fine when fitted to the mark two horn.

In summing up, then, Yamaha have taken an arguably legendary horn and applied a few tweaks and updates. In so doing they've managed to retain much of the character of the original horn, but even the slightest change is still a change. For some players the changes won't make much difference, for others they will be significant.
In terms of quality I don't think there's much in it, and certainly not enough to put the new horn down as flimsier and less well-built on the whole - which hopefully reassures prospective buyers who may have heard otherwise.

As a long-time player of a mark one YAS62 I feel the new version has lost a little of what made it such a great horn - though it has to be said that the mark two can still stand on its own merits. There's definitely a relationship between the two horns in a sort of 'chip off the old block' kind of way - but I think I'll stick with the old block.