During the summer I came across a couple of ads on Vancouver’s Craigslist, which should get all of us\u2014regardless where you live\u2014thinking. Why? Well even if you’re like me, and don’t generally buy horns online, you could still encounter fake horns.<\/p>\n
Would you know how to spot a fake\u2014regardless of the brand? Selmer, Yanagisawa, and Yamaha saxophones are often copied and sold as the real thing<\/em>.<\/p>\n It just so happened that the two saxophones for sale in Vancouver this summer, were both Selmer knockoffs. There might be Yani and Yamaha fakes in the local market as well, but I wasn’t looking for them. I just happened across these while perusing Craigslist to see if I could find a vintage sax bargain, but instead I found horns to illustrate my counterfeit article.<\/p>\n Both horns were sold by the same seller\u2014ostensibly because he has throat cancer.<\/p>\n The tenor is very easy to identify as a counterfeit:<\/p>\n *<\/sup>N.B. It should be noted that some of the Reference horns had the stylized “R” engraved above the serial number like the alto below. I am not sure at what point the practice stopped, but the early Reference horns certainly had this engraving.<\/p>\n At first blush the alto might be a bit harder to spot as a counterfeit since its finish is closer to what a real one looks like, but let’s take a closer look…<\/p>\n No matter where you live you can run into counterfeit saxophones. What can you do to protect yourself from buying one by accident?<\/p>\n Until now we’ve assumed that these counterfeit saxophones could be spotted, and\/or buyers are paying less for them than they would for the real, brand name horn. Now let’s for a moment turn that around, and say that a buyer got taken by a seller, and paid top dollar for a counterfeit. What then?<\/p>\n Let’s say John unknowingly bought a counterfeit Series III tenor from Paul, and paid $4,000 for it. John takes the horn to his tech, who informs him that it is Chinese knockoff, and worth few hundred bucks at most. What will John do?<\/p>\n Sure, John could go after Paul to get his money back. But if Paul is smart, and knew he was selling a counterfeit saxophone, Paul will have slithered back into the cesspool whence he came. If John is ethical, he learns his lesson, and recognizes that he is out the extra $3,500 or so he spent on the POS. He plays his knockoff until it falls apart, and then he buries it the backyard next to the family pets.<\/p>\n If, on the other hand, John is not ethical, John tries to recoup his money by passing this counterfeit saxophone off on to another unsuspecting buyer.<\/p>\n And therein lies the problem with counterfeit saxophones.<\/p>\n Yes, counterfeiting saxophones is just as illegal as making knockoff Hermes or Louis Vuitton purses. It harms individuals, and it hurts the original brand name company. Selmer takes this matter very seriously, and so should you. Don’t fall victim to it. Don’t be a John.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yes, there are most definitely counterfeit saxophones in Vancouver, Canada A number of months ago I started writing a fully illustrated, updated piece on how …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[710],"tags":[625,711,712,182,633,644,629,123,630,53],"class_list":["post-45177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-counterfeit-saxophones","tag-alto-saxophone","tag-counterfeit-saxophones","tag-knockoffs","tag-modern-saxophones","tag-musings","tag-photos","tag-selmer","tag-selmer-reference-54","tag-tenor-saxophone","tag-woodwind-forum"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tCounterfeit saxophone #1: fake Selmer Reference 54 tenor<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"counterfeit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/1-1.jpg?w=368&h=225&ssl=1\" "\\"1\\"")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> ![\"counterfeit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/2-1.jpg?w=363&h=225&ssl=1\" "\\"2\\"")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> ![\"counterfeit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/3.jpg?w=131&h=225&ssl=1\" "\\"3\\"")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> ![\"counterfeit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/4.jpg?w=296&h=225&ssl=1\" "\\"4\\"")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n
![\"Selmer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Bell-Engraving-ws.jpg?resize=1174%2C783&ssl=1\")
<\/a>\n
![\"Selmer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/serial-number-ws.jpg?resize=1174%2C783&ssl=1\")
<\/a>![\"Selmer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DSC00017_zps9d3e3e96.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Counterfeit saxophone #2: fake Selmer Reference 54 alto<\/h2>\n
![\"counterfeit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/1.jpg?w=821&h=547&ssl=1\" "\\"1\\"")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> ![\"counterfeit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/2.jpg?w=345&h=547&ssl=1\" "\\"2\\"")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n
![\"Selmer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/neck22.jpg?resize=1174%2C617&ssl=1\")
<\/a>\n
![\"Selmer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DSC00001_zps364a0801.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
<\/a>\n
![\"Selmer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/2-2.jpg?resize=668%2C700&ssl=1\")
<\/a>\n
![\"Selmer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image-6006634-0-1395837124000.jpg?resize=641%2C960&ssl=1\")
<\/a>What can you do to prevent yourself from buying a counterfeit saxophone?<\/h2>\n
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Taking this to the next level then…<\/h2>\n