Looking for a well made tarogato that doesn’t cost a fortune? For sale we have a lovely vintage tarogato that I believe was made in Germany. This instrument is tuned to Bb like a soprano sax and has a range down to low Bb. This is not a cheap Romanian made tarogato like you sometimes see on eBay. While cheaper tarogato are often made of light fruit wood with nickel plated brass keys, this tarogato is made of beautiful dark cocobolo wood with solid nickel-silver key work. The wood is well finished inside and out and interestingly enough it even has a threaded hinge rod for the ring key and pivot screws for the right pinky keys which is very advanced for a tarogato, not even my Stowasser has that! This instrument has been fully serviced and is in excellent playing condition. As part of this service both joints were stripped, oiled and tenon corks were replaced. The keys were then cleaned, tightened as needed and key corks were replaced as needed. Tone holes were all leveled and pads have been changed as well. The pads were a bit tricky with this instrument as they had to be extremely thin. For the smaller pads I mostly used white leather clarinet pads and for the larger pads I used tan leather bass clarinet pads which are the only ones I could find that were thin enough to fit. There were also two pads in the upper joint that were so thin I had to use sheepskin similar to how I would repad a classical era clarinet. Fortunately both joints seal well and the instrument plays well from low Bb up. Note that it is a single octave key instrument so it can be difficult to play at the very top of the upper register and you may need to experiment with alternate fingerings. On the plus side the intonation is quite good throughout the range for a tarogato, even better than my Stowasser in places. I don’t see any cracks in the wood other than a small crack on the mouthpiece cap which of course will not affect playability. The instrument does show dents, dings and scratches as expected from a vintage horn. In addition to coming with the original wooden mouthpiece, ligature and cap it also comes with a custom JDWoodwinds tarogato mouthpiece and ligature (normally $150). This mouthpiece is based on a Stowasser mouthpiece and plays well with either soprano sax reeds or cut down Bb clarinet reeds. Also included is a brand new Reed & Squeak tarogato case.
Looking for a well made tarogato that doesn’t cost a fortune? For sale we have a lovely vintage tarogato that I believe was made in Germany. This instrument is tuned to Bb like a soprano sax and has a range down to low Bb. This is not a cheap Romanian made tarogato like you sometimes see on eBay. While cheaper tarogato are often made of light fruit wood with nickel plated brass keys, this tarogato is made of beautiful dark cocobolo wood with solid nickel-silver key work. The wood is well finished inside and out and interestingly enough it even has a threaded hinge rod for the ring key and pivot screws for the right pinky keys which is very advanced for a tarogato, not even my Stowasser has that! This instrument has been fully serviced and is in excellent playing condition. As part of this service both joints were stripped, oiled and tenon corks were replaced. The keys were then cleaned, tightened as needed and key corks were replaced as needed. Tone holes were all leveled and pads have been changed as well. The pads were a bit tricky with this instrument as they had to be extremely thin. For the smaller pads I mostly used white leather clarinet pads and for the larger pads I used tan leather bass clarinet pads which are the only ones I could find that were thin enough to fit. There were also two pads in the upper joint that were so thin I had to use sheepskin similar to how I would repad a classical era clarinet. Fortunately both joints seal well and the instrument plays well from low Bb up. Note that it is a single octave key instrument so it can be difficult to play at the very top of the upper register and you may need to experiment with alternate fingerings. On the plus side the intonation is quite good throughout the range for a tarogato, even better than my Stowasser in places. I don’t see any cracks in the wood other than a small crack on the mouthpiece cap which of course will not affect playability. The instrument does show dents, dings and scratches as expected from a vintage horn. In addition to coming with the original wooden mouthpiece, ligature and cap it also comes with a custom JDWoodwinds tarogato mouthpiece and ligature (normally $150). This mouthpiece is based on a Stowasser mouthpiece and plays well with either soprano sax reeds or cut down Bb clarinet reeds. Also included is a brand new Reed & Squeak tarogato case.
