Vital Stats
Introduced: Mid to late 1970s.
Discontinued: Mid to late 1970s.
Available Pitches: Eb alto. Possibly Bb tenor.
Available Finishes: I’ve only seen lacquer.
Brief Model Notes
This is possibly the second-most difficult to find Yanagisawa, behind the A-600.
The A-2 was a “beginner” saxophone that Yanagisawa intended for young students: it had a reduced key range of low B to high C and had no “extra” or chromatic keywork. In other words, it was both functionally and structurally identical to the Buescher Academy line of saxophones from the 1950s. I also think they were probably as short lived as the Buescher Academy — or even less short lived.
Everything I could say about reduced-keywork saxophones is laid out by Stephen Howard in his excellent review of the current reduced-keywork saxophone, the Trevor Jones Alphasax.
The main reason why the Alphasax is (or has been) more successful than the Buescher Academy or the Yanagisawa A-2 is because the horn isn’t only lighter, but the keywork is a better fit for folks with small hands. That’s a big plus. However, if the problem the student has is only the horn’s weight, rather than keywork, it’s possible that the reintroduced plastic (polycarbonate, to be precise) saxophone, the Vibratosax, might be a better idea.
Serial Number Information
The 2 Series horns have a five or six-digit serial number. The form is essentially …
mmyynn
Examples:
47523 = April, 1975.
127513 = December, 1975.
Further serial number research can be found in my thread on the Woodwind Forum.
Additional Pictures
Thesax.Info
Saxess Blog (1 example)
Saxpics.com (3 examples)
