this great-sounding ax from top-rated Taiwanese mfr can sound like a clarinet, trumpet, or higher soprano sax depending on how you play it. of course if you ignorantly put a metal mouthpiece on it and bite down and blow hard you will sound shrill, but the sopranino is not a naturally shrill instrument, it is a beautiful and flexible instrument played properly, with a nice Selmer or Yani hard rubber mpce and an Eb clarinet reed (you heard me, the secret is not to use the awful and only sopranino reed made, by VanDoren, but to use the VanDoren small Eb clarinet reed instead.) just for that advice you should offer this horn up, since you will sound better doing what i say than if you buy the most expensive nino in existence..this nino is in great playing condition re pads etc, it\'s a killer ax. the gold plating
shows some wearing off around the low C# pad, and inside the bell, but nothing extensive, and nothing anyone in your audience will notice. the mother of pearl keypad was lost on the upper alternate Bb key, and replaced by a clear plastic keypad. i bought this nino in 2009 from a pro musician who barely used it who was the original owner, he bought it in 2008. I bought a new Rampone & Cazzani nino in 2006 at an expo special for $4k , and only grabbed the IW for a backup. lo and behold, i started to like it better than the R&C, and sold that one.
i will include th R&C mouthpiece with the IW.you won\'t find many of these used, check the IW site and see how much a gold nino is now, and take advantage of the differential. this ax has tons of mileage left to drive on it...will consider trade for curved soprano (not Chinese)

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