7/30/19 Should I Buy Javalina A Tenor Sax Now?

    Javalina started band practice last week and instead of getting a bari sax assigned to him, he got a tenor saxophone.  I have always been kind of interested in playing one as I never did back in my playing days, but I opened the case and like Boy said "that is a box of tetanus waiting to get you."  I am sure this was a pretty saxophone back in the 1970s, when it was new.  This horn has no brass coloring left.  I am surprised it even plays.  My old saxophone my parents bought me when I was in 7th grade looks better than this instrument.
    I don't know how serious Javalina is about band.  If I knew he was serious about it, I would go buy him a new one just out of principle.  How can he take any pride in the music he produces when the instrument looks like a crude representation of a working sax?  Maybe it is just my ego, but I know I played a lot better when in my sophomore year I got a brand new Baritone Saxophone, well the Crystal City Band did, but I was the only one assigned to play it, even though there were 3-4 other people in the other bands playing bari as well.  I loved that instrument with its thick golden shine and exotic looking box that nobody else was allowed to mess with.
    It is fairly easy to do here.  When we went to get him the alto sax for 6th grade, we just went to the music center and walked out with a new one and a monthly $70 payment.  I wanted to do that with the bari but those things go for about $8000.  I believe tenor saxophones can be bought for around $2500, which is a pretty penny but I would like a sax around the house, whenever he is done goofing around with it.
    Speaking of band, he said it was kind of kicking his ass.  They have been going out and marching and doing exercises, probably to knock the cobwebs out of all these little dorks (I say it because I am a band dork at heart).  He was complaining because they were doing stuff like holding their arms above their heads repetitively which left him a little sore.  Monday morning either he was really sick with a little diarrhea and nausea or he used it to get out of "working out" with the band, and he thinks he is going to dominate with the football players, hmm?
    This is not about football yet, right now I am wondering if I should help him out with a new instrument?  I don't want him to be the spoiled freshman with parents who buy him whatever but I also don't want him to be the freshman that gets no respect and has to play the "shit" instrument to "learn."