My friend and dealer in Norway (Runar Tveten) had an interesting proposition for me about 4 months back. He wanted to find a Bass Saxophone for a customer. Now that is a pretty tall order considering I didn’t know a single factory in China that made the “huge” Bass Saxophone.

It just so happens I was going to the China Music Show the following week and guess what? I saw the most beautiful Bass Saxophone on display at one of the factory booths. This thing was big, it was solid and it was gorgeous. The finish was an Antique Silver plate (looked like a shiny pewter with gray antique highlights.. buffed with a “brushed” finish). I was really impressed.

I made a deal with the factory and custom ordered the horn with the Legend name on it. Surprisingly they finished the horn up in about 2 months and shipped it to my office in China. When I got the box I was amazed at the size. I mean this box was very large — about 6 feet long and 2 feet wide.

I wasn’t worried about the quality — I could tell right-a-way this horn would make the grade. Of course the final opinion would come from the customer. I was delighted to hear from Runar that the customer was “extremely” happy. I have posted Runar’s letter in the Feedback section.

One last note: I was worried about the size of the box. All I could think about was the DHL Express shipping cost was going to be expensive. I am happy to say that I am a very good DHL customer in China so they gave me a “special rate” for the oversized box. Thanks to Jiangyong Jiang (Lilly) at DHL for all her effort on this project. Things went smoothly with Chinese Customs and the horn was delivered within 3 days of boarding a plane headed for Oslo, Norway.

Now if any of you folks out in saxophone-land are interested I have a very GOOD source for the Legend Bass Saxophone. You can save lots of money compared to buying a Bass from Germany — plus, I don’t think the German Bass has anything more to offer than the Legend at about 1/2 the price.

Thanks for stopping by,
Bob Campbell
topsax