<p>I agree that spending a lot of money on an instrument if the student isn’t committed to music as a profession is probably not a good investment, unless you can afford it and simply want to do Usually, when a student gets to the point of “needing” a better quality instrument, they know what they need and want. Also the higher level professional instruments seem to require more skill to play. When S2 went from his intermediate sax to the professional one, he said the intermediate sax was like playing a toy. He was able to get a beautiful sound from both instruments, and our repairman was able to adjust the intermediate horn to play more like the expensive one. (He leaves it at home, which saves us the cost of a plane ticket for his good instrument when he comes home for break.) </p>
<p>I suppose the mouthpiece is the sax equivalent of the bow. We have spent not only a small fortune (much smaller than the horn itself/much more than reeds and other accessories) on mouthpieces. I have actually sat listening (and having to provide input) on mouthpieces for more time than for instruments. And sometimes the differences are extremely small.</p>