Barnes & Mullins Yanagisawa TWO1U – Tenor Saxophone – Unlacquered Brass

The upgraded replacement for the legendary T901U series

This TWO1U unlacquered brass model is suited just as well to aspiring beginners as to experienced professionals. 

The Yanagisawa T901U achieved “classic” status over the past 30 years as a remarkable sax for the price and a leader in its class. With superlative Japanese design and build quality it only ever really had one serious competitor, also from Japan. The best just got better with this new upgraded TWO1U model.

Description

Yanagisawa saxes are made by a small family company in Japan that only makes professional quality saxes, and they do it very well. This degree of focus means they are of a quality that even their main competitors recognise as the best. Here at SAX, our technicians love them as they play straight out of the box and they are by far the most reliable instruments we sell.

Most saxes are covered in a thin lacquer to prevent them from tarnishing but this does slightly dampen the resonance of the metal. Unlacquered saxes are very popular as they allow the metal to resonate to its full potential. 

The TW01U has an even stronger tonal core thanks to a re-engineered bore and tone holes, plus many upgraded features.

Features

• Material: Brass

• Finish: Unlacquered

• Key Touches: White mother-of-pearl

• Neck: Yanagisawa

• Engraving: Hand engraved

• Case: Yanagisawa, rectangular back-pack style

• Mouthpiece: Yanagisawa Ebonite 5CR

• Made in: Japan

• Free Professional Set Up & Free Check over within a Year

• Recommended for: Advancing students, and professionals on a budget

Review

Yanagisawa have managed to raise the quality of their instruments another notch, with the introduction of the WO series.

The sound delivery of any Yani horn has always been one of richness and smoothness while remaining free-blowing throughout. This quality remains in place on the WO horns but there is an extra degree of warmth and just a little extra focus over and above the old brass models. I’m sure this must be largely due to the change of brass on the O1 and O10 models.

As for the bronze models, there is less of a discernable difference tonally but ergonomically all of the range has benefited from tweaks within the mechanism and key-work. These are lovely new horns. Jim – SAX