Our top clarinet tech, Audrey, recently made the trip to Buffet Crampon’s sole USA distributor and was able to hand select a BUNCH of new clarinets for stock. We are loaded on new R13’s in both silver and nickel keys, and to celebrate, we are holding an event the Friday and Saturday before Easter. We also have a handful of pro level Yamaha clarinets (CSVR, SEVR, and YCL-650), as well as a good number of used models on hand. Each clarinet will have Audrey’s pro set up on it, so you can rest assured that they’ll be in great playing shape. By appointment, you’ll be able to come in and try horns out and see if any are “the one” for you. We are currently taking appointments for both Friday and Saturday from 10am – 5pm. Call the shop at 314-664-1234 or email us at sales@clarinetquest.com to make your appointment!

Look what’s around the corner. We are well stocked on horns and looking forward to another fun Expo. If you are in the market for a new (or used) saxophone, clarinet, flute, oboe, or bassoon, be on the lookout here for more information in the next couple weeks. Like last year, this will be a spread out, safe, appointment-only event covering about a month. Stay tuned!

We’ve been busy. FIFTY (50!!) vintage saxophones have been added to the Saxquest website in the last 3 days. Lots of cool vintage horns, including Conn Chu’s and 10M’s, King Zephyrs and several great Super 20’s, and Selmers ranging from the old Modele 22 and Radio Improved up to Balanced Action and Mark VI’s. Our “What’s New” page doesn’t even show them all (it only displays 30 horns!) so you’ll need to browse around the Vintage Horns section to see everything. And we aren’t finished yet. We’ve gotten in a couple cool vintage bass saxes and some other gems that will be posted in the next couple days. If you are looking to find something cool, come shop around, or make an appointment to play-test in our store in St Louis.

https://www.saxquest.com/store/new-products

We are beyond excited about the brand new Selmer Paris Supreme alto sax. Just announced February 25, 2021, it is the newest, top-end professional alto available from Selmer Paris. We’ve got 3 on the way which will be here, ready to ship in just the next couple days, so place your order to be one of the first to own one of these gems!

https://www.saxquest.com/product/view/new-selmer-paris-supreme-alto-saxophone-in-dark-gold-lacquer-P14414

We’ve been busy the last couple days. Head over to the “What’s New” page and check out the 18 “gently used” and vintage instruments we’ve posted to our website in the last 2 days. We’ve got something for every budget and playing style.

https://www.saxquest.com/store/new-products

We’re very appreciative of our customers, who’ve been keeping us busy throughout this pandemic. Please hit us up with questions, phone 314-664-1234, or email 24 hours a day at info@saxquest.com. We often answer emails outside of store hours, so send us a message anytime!

Our Expo this year, while different from years past, was a great success, and we’d like to thank everyone who came out to try some horns! It was fun meeting new faces and reconnecting to old friends. Though the Expo may be over, we are still continuing our 2020 tradition of sanitizing, cleaning, and keeping a safe environment for our customers. If you’d like to try a sax or clarinet (or flute, or oboe), call the shop or email us to make an appointment.

Like all of you, we’re hoping for a return to normal in the coming year. Everyone please continue to stay safe, and we hope to be gigging with you in 2021.

Just wanting to update everyone on how we’ve been doing. We’ve had a great positive response to our playtest-by-appointment scheduling. Our customers have been very patient and have been great working with us on getting you in where we have slots available. Thank you very much! Starting Saturday, July 11, we will begin taking Saturday appointments as well. So if you’d like to trial a sax or clarinet in our store, please call the shop or email us to set up a time. We are sanitizing all horns and the entire play-test room after every customer, so you’ll be safe in this environment.

Repairs are also open as well. Our repair techs have a staggered schedule, with a combination of working-at-home and working-in-store, but there’s always a couple people in our shop who can look at your instrument, and give you an estimate on the repair. We are no longer offering same-day repairs (short of a quick minor fix like a neck cork), but we’re happy to give you an estimate on time and cost when we see the instrument.

So, call and make an appointment to play some horns, or stop by for a repair estimate or to buy the reeds you need. Our hours are Monday – Friday, 10am – 6pm, and Saturdays 10am – 2pm. We are still requiring all customers to wear a mask in store.

We hope that you have been able to stay healthy and sane over the past two months of shut-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

St Louis has begun lifting restrictions and reopening the city as of May 18. We are excited to announce that this allows us to reopen our doors for business. Our top priority in this initial reopening phase is to provide a safe environment for you and for our employees who will be returning to work. As such, we will be re-opening with a reduced in-store staff and will continue our practice of both on-site and off-site repairs. We will be practicing social distancing and following all the recommendations issued by the CDC in this “new normal.”

Our hours during the week will be the same as always: Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm but Saturdays will be by appointment only, for now (phone hours on Saturday are 10am-2pm). For accessory needs, we recommend placing your order on our web site. We’re offering free shipping for any orders over $100 and generally can ship the same day for orders placed before noon.

If you stop by the shop for reeds/accessories or if you need to drop off/pick up a repair, anytime during store hours is fine. However, if you would like to play test an instrument or mouthpiece, we will be doing that by appointment only for the foreseeable future. To reduce the number of people in the building, we are limiting our instrument/mouthpiece trials to one customer at a time. Please understand, if you show up at the store to play horns, and you don’t have an appointment, we will fit you in if we can but may have to ask you to wait if someone else has an appointment. After each appointment, we will be sanitizing the play test room and any equipment that was tried before the next appointment. We also ask that you bring along only one or two friends or family members or private instructor during an appointment. Lastly, everyone visiting the store is required to wear a mask. If you come in without a mask, you will not be allowed in the building.

So, you make that appointment, you have your mask, and you want to play some stuff, what can you play? The answer is just about any horn in the shop, with just a couple exceptions. Sanitizing horns can easily be done for lacquer and plated instruments; however, it cannot be done on unlacquered instruments (without leaving streaks). So, for now, new unlacquered instruments are not available for play testing. You can also play test any used or vintage mouthpiece (again, we’ll properly clean and sanitize when you are finished), but only those new mouthpieces that we have demos on hand can be play tested. Other new mouthpieces in the box and accessories (including ligatures) will not be available for play testing.

Going along with keeping numbers in our store down, many of our repair techs are going to continue to work from home. Except for simple repairs such as replacing a neck cork or tenon cork, we will not have enough techs on hand to do same-day repairs at this time. You can certainly still drop a horn off for repair and as always, the turnaround time will vary based on the repair needs.

Music is a great escape for everyone, and I have, like I’m sure many of you have, been listening to a lot of music and itching to start making some of my own with friends again. Saxquest will be doing everything we can to help our customers make music in a safe manner.

Got a few leaking pads or clicky keys? Did you bump your horn and it has nice big dent you’d like removed? Is your horn being held together with spit and tape? Have you been putting off repair work because you normally play every weekend? Let us fix your sax or clarinet (or flute, or trumpet, etc.) and get it back in perfect playing condition. All of our techs are currently working from home, and work is still getting done! Give us a call at 314-664-1234, or email us at info@saxquest.com, and talk to us about shipping us your instrument for repair. We’ll give you a rough ballpark estimate before you ship it, and a concrete one once it arrives. Though our retail store is closed, we do have a staff member on hand during the day to receive shipments and ship out orders and completed repairs. Once stuff starts opening up (and the baton is ready to drop on gigs again) you’ll want your instrument ready to go!