This morning while I was perusing Flickr, I happening across a photo that was so aptly named, that it stopped me dead in my virtual tracks. Martyn Hutchby’s, A sea of saxaphones [sic]—OK, so he got the spelling wrong, he was probably just too damn excited by the amount of sax-shaped brass in front of him—literally depicts a sea of saxophones on display in the brick and mortar store of Sax.co.uk.
A sea of saxophones
Photography by: Martyn Hutchby Source: Flickr
I don’t really know much about Sax.co.uk, and have only been to their website once or twice before this morning. The company purports to be: “The World’s Leading Saxophone Specialist”. Although in my mind I associate them most closely with being a Vibratosax dealer, their saxophone brands pages show an incredible variety of makes and models to choose from.
Sure they sell Vibratosax, but Sax.co.uk also sells every major brand of saxophone on the planet, and some minor name brands as well. The current listing of the brands they sell include: P. Mauriat, Yanagisawa, Selmer Paris, Yamaha, Signature Custom, Rampone & Cazzani, Forestone, Antigua, Bauhaus Walstein, Benedikt Eppelsheim, Buffet, Elkhart, Jupiter, Keilwerth, Sax.co, Selmer USA, and Trevor James.
I don’t know about you, but with a section like this, despite my being a vintage horn player, I could probably spent a few days at the store just playing the various tenors. Add some baritones into the mix, and I’d likely be there a week. The owners of Sax.co.uk would likely be charging me rent. 
If anyone here has ever been to Sax.co.uk, and has seen their sea of saxophones first hand, I’d love to hear from you. I think it would be an awesome sight, and perhaps an expensive one. I think a person would really have to check their G.A.S. at the door, and leave their bank cards at home. 
I went to their shop in Denmark St, one or two years ago. To be frank, the sea is more a lake than the Pacific but the range on display is , at these times of lean-everything, impressive indeed
And, as a nice bonus, you feel welcome from the very first second, by a highly qualified small team of enthusiasts. Alas, as my cash position was as lean as the sax inventory of your friendly guitar shop, I went away empty handed.
Jacques
Hello Jacques.
Thanks for dropping in, and sharing your experience. Regardless of how lean everything might be, I can tell you that nowhere in Canada would you ever see a display the size of this, even if the economy were perfect, and we had near 0% percent unemployment. Guitars, sure. Saxophones… not so much. In a massive country of just under 34.5 million people, there are just not enough sax players concentrated in any particular area to support anything like this.
Oh and enthusiastic shop people? I am indeed envious now Jacques. I think the last time I was met with enthusiasm when I went into a music store, was when I entered through the guitar & drum entrance at Long & McQuade’s flagship store in Vancouver. (Long & McQuade is Canada’s largest chain is music stores.)
Once you get to the Vancouver store’s woodwind section, you will see Canada’s largest selection of saxophones, but all totalled, there are only about 30 to 40 on display. Not really that impressive. Mind you, when I lived in the Maritimes for 10 years, I would have to drive 5 hours just to visit a store that had less than 1/2 of that number. 🙁
Hi Helen,
In a 30 minutes drive I can go to the shore of a sea with 400 occasion saxophones (5 basses). There are no pictures of this sea, only a small commercial movie:
http://www.muziekcentrumvangorp.nl/nieuws/reclamefilm_muziekcentrum_van_gorp/?nid=1236
G.A.S. control is very important in this area.