Glory Black Laquer E Flat Alto Saxophone with 11reeds,8 Pads cushions,case,carekit

I got the dark colored one and happy with the look. It plays well and have no regrets for buying this. It comes with everything to get you started for a reasonable price.

Ok,In my past, I've purchased a good 5 or 6 chinese saxophones, but unfortunately none really sounded like a real sax. Some even sounded like a trumpet.Some were ok. Like the tenors were more sax sounding than the altos, and the altos were better than the sopranos.But I've been pleasantly surprised with my Glory alto sax!No wonder it's rated number 2 in the list of best budget saxes of 2016! Number 1 was a sax more than 4x more expensive.It's definitely better than the 25% more expensive Mendini sax I own!It just sounds more like a sax, and the notes are more dead on than with the mendini, which in octave 2 gets more than a quarter note off scale.The instrument is beautiful (I got the plain black with golden keys), it's heavy, but not too heavy (mendini was heavier); it sounds great, and is easy to play.The provided mouthpiece is a practice mouthpiece, it doesn't go very loud.I paired it with a $20 Yamaha 4c mouthpiece, and it was a tad louder in the mid tones. It also more easily could play the lower notes. With the stock mouthpiece low D and C were hard to impossible to play. With the Yamaha mouthpiece, only the low C.I definitely will go for a better mouthpiece soon!I think mine needs to be set up, as the 4 lowest notes are really hard to play.The neck strap like usual needs replacement. I wonder why in this day and age they would still provide a non-neoprene padded strap for anything heavier than a soprano.Though the neck strap comes to good use for my EWI, which I have lost the strap for.My impression of the Glory sax lineup, is that in essence, they're all the same saxes, with as difference that there is the basic sax, the upgraded one (with a design in the bell and on the body), and the vintage saxes, with eye for detail on the paint and body designs. But all should emit about the same sound quality.Since for me this was a budget conscious choice, I went with the base model, and only paid $10 more for the black version with the golden keys.The reed on the sax was a bit of poor quality and chipped, so I have ordered synthetic reeds (bamboo/plastic mix, not regular plastic) for this sax.Overall I would say for beginners there is no better bargain out there to start out with. Whether you play in class, or play in a band, this sax is up for the task of the beginner and intermediate.Professionals too, can purchase one of these funky color saxes, and enjoy a decent sax sound.This sax probably doesn't have the reliability or sound quality of a $2k+ sax, and parts may be harder to find, but really, at $300, you just buy yourself another sax; which is what one repair with parts on a $2k sax easily cost anyway!So for the beginner and intermediate this is a great buy. For the pros, (aka, anyone with 2+ years of experience playing in bands) it's a nice gadget as tertiary sax, to take to sketchy gigs, or in places were sound quality matter less over looks!I would definitely buy a Glory sax again, it's the first Chinese sax, I would use in live settings!It sounds great!

I was a seasoned Alto Sax player at least back in the day (Junior High concert band 95-97 and Middle School to High School Marching band 97-2000). I haven’t played since about 2000 and used to own a Jupiter Alto sax back in the day that was recently stolen from my storage garage in my apartment complex in 2013. I was devastated to lose my sax and have been wanting to get a replacement for a long time but the Jupiter ones are still pricey. I went back and forth on the reviews of a few of the lower priced saxes on here and wasn’t sure if I would want to get back into it fully or not. For the price this one fits the bill as it comes with everything you need for under $200. Some people have written glowing reviews and others have written poor reviews, probably as a result of higher expectations but not realizing that this is priced under $200 for all that you get. There are some good things and some bad things about this item and I’ll try to break them all down.I went with the PR4 model which is called their professional series. Aside from the case shape difference and the color itself, I don’t know what supposedly makes this more professional than the other ones as I imagine all the includes parts are probably the same. I honestly couldn’t find any descriptions online or in the sale ad as to what makes the PR versions professional exactly. So if it’s just a case shape and a color difference and nothing else, you might as well save $40 and go with the regular models over the Professional ones. I will say that the sax itself is of very nice quality with a nice lacquer on it and the engravings are nicely done. I personally prefer the rectangle case that comes with the regular versions vs the shaped case of the professional models because there is more internal storage space, otherwise you’re kind of losing the extra storage on the professional model case. Mine was actually missing a couple of items (the single reed, the adjustment tool, and the mini screwdriver). That is somewhat of a bummer as one of the lower right pinky keys is not even with the other one that is right next to it and I would like to try and adjust the height to make them even (I believe it is the Low C key).On some additional negatives, the original mouthpiece is actually pretty low quality and bad. Some say that they like is, and I guess it depends on the person honestly but the thing does not seem to flow very much air through it, meaning you have to blow extra hard for the notes to sound and by then you would not be able to sustain multiple notes before having to suck in and breathe again. That was disappointing but I figured as much with a low priced item and there are plenty of others who have complained about the mouthpiece. I ordered the recommended Yamaha 4C and will see if that does better. Another negative are the cheap reeds that come with these, and reviewing through the different posted pictures some people were given 2.5 reeds and the ones that came with mine are actually a size 2. From reviewing around since it has been a while, beginners are recommended at a size 2. I made sure to get the reed extra wet and boy these things are dry and flakey, somewhat fraying and just give a terrible sound. When you are blowing into them you can tell the reed itself if the cause of the sound issue. I have since bought some Rico reeds which is what I used as a kid and hope they will improve the sound as hopefully they should and as people have mentioned. With a new mouthpiece and reed combo I am hoping to have a good improvement. A last negative about the mouthpiece area involves the ligature, which seems to have poor bends in it and is poorly made and you can barely get the last bit of the screw in to tighten it.The sax itself does not sound very good when playing and cannot seem to sustain or make out almost any of the notes I key in at all and is very squeaky in almost all notes (with the stock mouthpiece and reeds that it came with). I assume the poor sound quality is due to the mouthpiece and the reeds it comes with so I purchased the Yamaha 4C mouthpiece that was recommended as well as RICO 2.0 reeds which is what I had previously used when I was an active player. First I tried the new RICO reed with the stock mouthpiece, this gave MUCH better sound than the original reeds and there was a lot less squeak so that right there told me the reeds themselves were poor and the cause of the squeak. Next I tried the new reed on the Yamaha 4C mouthpiece, which in all honesty did not necessarily make it a whole ton better. There is a slightly different shape to the top of the mouthpiece where your upper lip and teeth would go and the reed seems to fit better with the ligature than the stock mouthpiece. But the sound quality was only slightly better, with less squeaks and I will say there was better airflow as it did not require me to force my breathe as hard through this mouthpiece compared to the original one. Now the part that made me sad about the sax then at this point was with a good reed and good mouthpiece and the squeaks eliminated, the sax seems to struggle with holding the very low notes and then cannot seem to produce the highest notes at all. There are times where it will dial itself right in on the low notes and then just flutter away when trying to sustain them. On the high notes it will not even seem to register the high F or the few notes just below that on the scale. BUT the middle ground notes seem to work just fine and sound good to me!In all, I would give this item a 3 stars, for some of the quality issues and the missing parts but this is likely to be expected from a sax at this price range as well as the poor overall sound quality.Pros:-very nice packaging that it came in, packed and shipped well and very protected from any damages, and the saw and all items are wrapped and bagged nicely-the finish is very nice on the PR4, it’s a smooth lacquer and it seems to be very nice for the price, the engraving is actually really nicely done on this one as well tho I would have preferred no flower engraving in all honestyCons:-1 of the reeds was missing, came with a sealed pack of 10 but not the single one-The adjustment tool and screwdriver were also missing-Some minor blemishes on the PR4 professional finish-original mouthpiece was terrible, you can feel the poor flow through it, squeaks badly-the pack of reeds feel very frayed and poor, they do not seat well and squeak badly-original ligature is pretty bad as well and does not fit well on the mouthpiece when there is a reed in place (almost cannot even get the threads to connect)-some of the keys need an adjustment to be even (some of the lower right pinky keys are not even at least)-I actually prefer the larger rectangle case that comes with the normal models as it has a larger internal pocket for items while the professional case is shaped but lesser internal storage space.-my model did not seem to have the “jewels” people talked about on the saxophone mine instead is just empty and you can see the green fuzz from the key braces where the outside of the keys are pushed back to, no jewels which I guess would have been a nice touch.