I'm selling the Taiwan-made one to a school where the band director is a baritone sax player who owns a Yamaha 62 baritone saxophone - and they keep it right there at the school, so there WILL BE an A/B comparison between the 62 and the JP144 (at half the cost).
I'm going to say right off the bat that I suspect that this 144 is lesser (vs. a Yamaha 62), but I've never before sold either the Chinese one or the Taiwanese one, and I was pretty nervous about selling any baritone saxophone (other than a Yamaha 62) to this band director's school. We unpacked it and it has the "Samsonite style" case that I've seen before - which should hold up under normal use, but young scholars can tear up anything. I did notice that the latches were still recessed but they seem like they're a little bit tougher and more out of the way and less likely to be hit then those I saw in the past, and the wheels also look like they're going to last a lot longer - as they are shaped into the case as well.
I'm a tuba player who can play a few songs on saxophones. I'm not much of a reader, but I actually tried to borrow a bari sax for a recent pops concert to play on one tune - because I thought it would be really fun, but all I could borrow was a really old Martin that had no scale whatsoever, so I played it on cimbasso. If I had this instrument, I would have eagerly played that piece on this instrument. I'm not having any trouble at all playing in the green zone on the tuner in the lower register, and - in the upper register - it's only creeping sharp just a little bit on a few pitches, and I think that were I a better (real) player with a really nice mouthpiece, I wouldn't have any trouble with those pitches at all. It's got a great sound, it's very vibrant, and it arrived perfectly adjusted.
I'm not supposed to advertise heavily discounted prices, but rest assured I gave them a "school" price, and really didn't make very much money. I've seen the pictures of built-in floor pegs, but have never seen them on actual instruments. The thing to which it attaches is very sturdy, and the floor peg itself is quite sturdy and actually a bit heavy - and I like the swivel base.
The band director has been loaning their 62 out to their top student for things like jazz band use and tryout use. I've had to do minor repairs to their instrument that would otherwise not have needed to have been done had it not been handled by young scholars. I feel really confident that they're going to be happy with this JP144. I sort of wish that I had the courage to order this band director the way-less-expensive JP044 (Chinese), but - again - I'd never sold either model before. (Their Chinese tenor - same factory as the Chinese bari, and which is supposed to be the cheap model - is actually a fabulous instrument.)
