eBay

This is a brand new P.Mauriat System 76 Alto Saxophone. It was set up by master saxophone craftsman Ken Beason. Ken's work is impeccable and his tolerances far exceed the accuracy of the P.Mauriat factory technicians. The workmanship from the P.Mauriat factory in Taiwan is certainly passable. However, after it was set-up by Ken, the horn really came alive!!

Ken did what he refers to as his benchmark major service which is basically a “soft” overhaul. He rebuilds the horn by hand without changing the pads (since they are factory fresh brand new pads). His process involves leveling all tone holes, leveling all the key cups and making sure the pads are seating perfectly level at the point of contact and not “floated” which is a shortcut used by a lot of repairmen to get a proper seating and seal. Floating pads doesn’t achieve a truly leveled mechanically precise key work system. He also makes sure that the key cups (which hold the pads) and pads are centered over the tone holes, which is a level of precision not often seen in a pro sax setup. He also normalizes and lightens the spring tension, and makes sure that all the posts and rods have no misalignment which could affect the fluidity of the action. Ken also makes sure that the bell is soldered to the body (P. Mauriat uses glue, which is not as good and dampens resonation). At the end of the day, this is a two-day $600 process that has the end result of a light-action vintage feel and increased resonation with a fully set-up horn ready to scream!

So this horn is totally killin' now, Ken really set it up incredibly well. The horn is new, I've only played it a few times before having Ken Beason do the benchmark service to it. It's an extremely beautifully playing horn and the price point is really fair. To give you an idea, it sells for $2729 just about everywhere, I spent $600 on having this horn set-up professionally by ken, but I'm selling it a few hundred below retail, so essentially Ken's benchmark is free (for you, not me!). As far as sound and playability, it’s fully on par with the Greg Osby artist model (which is also a system 76). You will not find a better playing P.Mauriat System 76 Alto, period. Unless, of course, you can find one that is also benchmarked or overhauled by a really great saxophone tech. Like I said, Ken's work is absolutely the best I've seen in my 33 years of playing saxophone, he's incredibly precise and the final result is a fantastic light and very fast alto saxophone with a gorgeous tone. I'm having him overhaul my early Mark VI Tenor (an 88k) and I CAN'T WAIT to get it back!!!

Anyway, please feel free to contact me with any questions about this horn, I'm happy to tell you whatever you need to know or I can put you in contact directly with Ken and he can give you the run-down on everything he did to set it up. In fact if you want to look him up, just google him and read about him, and if you reach out to him about this horn, just say it's Jonathan's P.Mauriat alto and he'll know exactly what your referring to. (I'm not putting his contact info on this listing out of respect for Ken's privacy). This auction has a 14 day return policy, you pay return insured shipping. So try the horn for two weeks (save the shipping box and padding) and if you don't think it's the best fit, return it in the same new condition and I'll refund you. Not my preference but also not a big deal. Anyway, I hope this info was helpful in your research to find the right saxophone!! Best of luck in your search!! Hopefully after reading this, you’ll realize what a great deal this is. Apologies for the long-winded description, but I think too much info is better than too little.