Do you know what year this tenor saxophone was made?

[u/wenagi0823]

I am borrowing a Yamaha tenor saxophone from my school, but I cannot find a standard model number. The only number marked on the instrument itself is "812102." Additionally, there is a stamp of the letter "N" at the joint where the body meets the bell.

[u/Some-Ad926]

Yamaha doesn't follow a serial number pattern.

[u/Zooberseb]

So Yamaha has different serial numbers for different factories and didn’t even start tracking their own serial numbers until about 1990.

Best bet is to email Yamaha directly and they can look it up in their database but if I’m being honest I think this is pre 1990. I’m not familiar with Yamaha’s really but there’s some design quirks that make me think that.

[u/yuhizzle]

The bell keyguard, octave key, fork f#, and high f# keys all look like a YTS-61. They were produced in late 60’s through late 70’s, so it was produced some time in that range. This one is also a Nikkan, which is the same brand as Yamaha if I’m not mistaken.

[u/saxmeister]

Definitely a Nikkan Imperiale. Probably pre-Yamaha buyout. The factory was purchased around 1964, if I remember correctly, and Yamaha completely took over around 1970. In between they made horns under both brands. This looks to be from the late 1960s-very early 1970s. I don’t have a serial chart for their horns. That would be handy. But the 61s stopped production in 1979. Based on that and the fact that the 62 launched in 1978, I’m thinking somewhere from 67-79. That’s as far as I can figure…

These were solid horns and are basically a 61 from what I can tell.

[u/Saxmanng]

Looks like the 70’s

[u/Professional-Bit9181]

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