Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Bundy tenor sax





These are just awesome horns for the money!  This Bundy was an early one,  just post Selmer buyout.  What you have is identical for the most part to a late run Buescher Aristocrat.  In other words, a solid, well made, good sounding saxophone that once set up will blow many newer horns out of the water!  Seriously,  these old Bundy I horns can be had for so cheap and make excellent student or backup horns.

LaCroix bass clarinet








Here's a really neat old French bass clarinet made by LaCroix.

I'm really not sure if LaCroix is a stencil instrument or not,  this one was very similar to the "LaBar" bass clarinet I posted about some time back.
A few interesting things about this instrument:  the body is 2 piece but also made of ebonite,  this is the 1st 2 piece ebonite bass I've seen.  Also it featured a double register vent which is typically only found on professional instruments.
The neck was fitted with a circular key just like you would see on a saxophone,  wow!
I really liked the sound of this instrument,  the double register setup was certainly on the finicky side but all in all a good clarinet!

Evette & Schaeffer baritione sax






Here's one of the 1st early Buffet Evette & Schaeffer horns I've had my hands on.  I see a lot of the later French (Malerne) & Italian E&S horns,  but this one is from the 1920s.
This horn had a great sound!  I got it playing on the old pads,  it had a rough neck socket that will need replacing in the future but all in all it was a player.  The tone was superb and the build quality was good,  well made for sure. 
One interesting thing about the key work,  there was no way to play F# with your right hand middle finger like you can on most any other sax,  but there was a neat way to play an Eb trill with a special key setup.  This is not to be confused with the American version of Eb trill,  this is a totally unique approach to this.  Not sure if they did this on other horns or not,  but I'm assuming they did.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Martin Handcraft Mater aka Typewriter alto saxophone

Here's a rare treat, a Martin Typewriter!  These were never called that by Martin but they are nicknamed that since the pearls look like typewriter keys.  These horns have a pearl on EVERY key, not a roller to be found!  It does take some getting used to but these can be totally playable once you get used to it.  This horn in particular needed major cleaning and polishing but the pads turned out to be mostly usable!  The build quality and sound are just like any other Martin sax, outstanding.  

Cousenon Albert system Bb clarinet

Here's a lovely old Cousenon Bb clarinet with Albert system fingering.
Cousenon made great stuff, and this was a nice playing instrument.  As I usually do, this clarinet was re padded with high quality Pisoni leather pads and restored to playing condition.   The barrel had a tight crack that needed filled but when it was done it was barely visible.  This was a fun instrument to play, fantastic & flexible tone.

Buescher True Tone series III alto saxophone






Here's another smashing old Buesher True Tone, a series III variety.
This horn came to me without a case, missing some things, but all in all straight and clean.  I tracked down the missing octave mech bit and restored this horn last winter,  it turned out great!  So great in fact that my partner decided to keep this horn as her main axe, which it was until a Series IV TT came along that she liked even better.
These horns are just fantastic sounding, pretty comfortable, lots of harmonic spread in the tone.   Lovely.  The differences in the various Series' have to do with the evolution of the horns by Buescher.  This one is a Series III, the only differences between this and a series IV are a different engraving and a nice little roller arm on the for the G#.  They both have the more modern pinky table (pearl G# touch piece as opposed to a button in the earlier TT's) and better intonated #1 neck. 
Probably my favorite horns here!

Conn New Wonder I alto saxophone





What a lovely horn here, a mid 20's Conn New Wonder series I alto sax in silver plate.  This horn needed just about everything but it was well worth it, when everything was done I was left with a great playing and sounding horn.   These old NW's are very powerful!  You can really fill a room with the right mouthpiece.  And I love the microtuner neck, this one was overhauled and worked perfectly.   Love these!