Looking for My Son a Band Instrument

I think I saw some instruments at Sams club. They are new and very reasonable compared to other places. Beware, I bought one on Ebay and had the band teacher look at it, supposedly it was new, but it was in horrible condition. I was lucky the seller took it back. Good luck!!!

I would try Hume music. Look it up in the phone book. There is one near us at 151st and Metcalf. Call first. I would also look on Craig's list and see if there are any local listings. It is kind of a toss up -- you can't choose a good instrument unless you can play it, but your child will have better success if they have good equipment. I would probably get a month to month rental and then try to buy an instrument locally that you can try out first. Good luck

Have you tried the regular classifieds. I've seen some insturments in them. Try that. Just a thought. Good luck and God Bless.

Check out E-Bay. There are a lot of E-Bay Stores that sell a lot of off brand instruments. I bought my son a Viola there when he started playing a couple of years ago and only paid $85 which included shipping! It was a great instrument and sounded good too. I like you did not know a lot about instruments, and was not sure how much money I wanted to put into something that in a a year or two he was done and I has spent a fortune..... So just a thought for you

I would look on Craigs list or even just in the paper.

You might want to check out a place called " Musician's Friend ". The have a huge store/warehouse on 210 highway between 291 and Ameristar casino. They also have a website you can check out. Hope this helps.

Hi C.,

I'm a flute teacher, and my advice is to find someone who either teaches the alto sax or who plays the alto sax well and who can evaluate any instrument that you are thinking of buying. It's easy to buy something online or without playing it and then find out that it costs more money to fix the instrument than it would have to rent/buy a new/used one. Repairs can be very expensive, and you could end-up with an instrument that isn't worth anything (due to the needed repairs) and isn't playable. To use the flute as an example, an overhaul/repadding can cost $100-$300, and many used instruments won't play at all until this task has been completed.

Good luck! I bought flutes online for my children to play, but I'm a professional flutist and I knew what I was looking for and I made sure that I had the right wording in the contracts so that I could return the instruments if they did not play well enough. I also bought brands that held their value and that would have good resale value once they were reconditioned/repadded.

A. C.

Hi C.,
You could check out Musicians' Friend. They have a place on Front street where you can buy instruments and accesories. We bought my son a coronet from there when he was in 4th grade. They have a variety of prices, so you have that to choose from. But my son still has his coronet and still plays some on occasion. He lost interest in the 8th grade. But we got his instrument and case for a reasonable price. I don't know if they sell the mouth piece or not. I can't remember. Anyway they should be listed in the phone book or maybe you could find them online and browse that way. If you have trouble finding them let me know.

I recently bought a saxophone from online that was one of those "cheap Chinese saxophones". I took a chance that it would be at least playable. I absolutely LOVE IT! I did need to buy a better mouthpiece because the one it came with was awful. I bought it in advance because I had read about the need to do so on discussion groups online. The problem with the cheap saxophones is that they don't have enough parts yet because they are so new. fixing them can be difficult or impossible. But I paid 160 dollars for it and it's just like any other sax I've ever seen. I only waited a few days for it to get here. So you really can buy one if you decide you can't afford a 600-800 dollar instrument. I bought mine on Ebay and the person had a good feedback rating.