All saxophones are out of tune with themselves. I had a Selmer Mark VI tenor for many years, it's the holy grail of saxophones, they are now going for $5,000 or so. It was not in tune with itself, and quite difficult to play in tune compared to a more modern horn.

I have a silver plated King alto built in 1925. It was a top-of-the-line sax in it's day. The intonation variations on this horn is very extreme. But it was built with heavy brass (no longer available for some reason), has a thick silver plate on it, and the result is that it has the voice of an angel. I wouldn't trade it for a new horn any day.

I now play a MacSax that was made in Taiwan to my specifications. There are only two in the world like it. Mine -- and someone else who liked mine so much he had them make a copy. The intonation is better than my old Selmers (I've had 3), better than my old Grassi, and better than my old Couf, much better than my King, but I still have to compensate each note except for the one I tune up with.

Each sax has it's own intonation signature, some notes are sharper or flatter than the note you tune up with. When in school band, they made each of us come in on our own time to learn the signature of our instrument. We sat in front of a Strob-o-conn (primitive tuner) and played long notes, noting which ones were sharper or flatter than the concert Bb (tenor C) that the band tuned up to.

Then we were to play long notes humoring them until they were in tune, and then holding them in tune as long as we could. (tighter lip on the reed raises the pitch, less pressure lowers it). This builds muscle memory.

Once the signature of the sax has been established, and you know which direction to lip the note you have to use your ears and your lip to play in tune. There is no sax made yet that you don't have to do this with.

A bit of my own opinion about jazz. Let him play whatever turns him on. Jazz is great, but let him take baby steps first and play whatever he enjoys. As people mature, their tastes in music change.

When I was in high school, I played classical music in school, and rock and roll after hours. The band director teased me, calling it rack and roll, but encouraged me to be in a rock band and to get gigs. In high school I was excused from marching in the Orange Bowl parade on New Years Eve because the band directors though a gig was more important than one marcher in a parade.

I was playing the music I loved at the time, I was playing at school dances, occasional night clubs, Teen Town, and other venues, and I got to meet girls that way. I've since played many different types of music, including being a regular in a jazz jam that had people like Ira Sullivan and Duffy Jackson come to sit in. The rock didn't hurt the jazz, and the jazz didn't hurt the rock. What is most important is that your son has fun. Let him jam to the Bob Crewe or whatever else he wants. Slowly introduce him to the jazz and see if he takes it, but don't force it.

Take your son's sax to a sax technician. You should be able to find one with a query on the Sax On The Web forum forum.saxontheweb.net/forum.php
and let him evaluate the intonation on the sax. If it is sax with terrible intonation, you might think about trading up, but even if you do, intonation is going to be a problem, your son has to learn how to play it in tune. It just comes with the territory.

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