1950's Conn 6M alto sax

Well here ya go folks,  a Conn 6M from the 50's,  also known as the "Naked Lady".  At this point in production there was just a lady in a window in the engraving.
Also at this point the microtunter neck was gone as were the rolled tone holes.
This horn has almost all of its lacquer gone!
Its been around the block but really in decent shape all in all.  A few dings, some scratches, some key play, plier marks from past repairs.   But with new pads this baby plays well!  After some key work and of course a cosmetic upgrade (polishing/buffing the brass or re-lacquer) this horn will make someone very happy.
I love the key work setup on these,  its very fast and comfortable.  To be quite honest I prefer the tone of other saxophones, but I've yet to play a rolled tone hole 6M so maybe they have the sound I like.  There's nothing wrong at all about the sound of this horn,  to my ears its more modern sounding than many vintage horns,  but to me the "sound" that gets me going is something along the lines of a Buescher True Tone...................!

Evette & Schaeffer alto sax

Well I've had a number of old Italian horns through here,  here's another!
This is an Evette & Schaeffer which was Buffets "student" line.  Originally these were made by Malerne in France but at some point production moved to Italy, by Santoni.  This is one of the Santoni made horns. 
These are rock solid!  The keywork isn't on a pro level by any means but its certainly well made and the horn plays great.  Honestly these have a great sound.  I read somewhere that until the Japanese market took over these were the "go to" horns around Europe in the 70's and 80's.   I believe it!
This particular horn has major lacquer loss and lotsa brass patina.  I think it looks lovely. 
This is another horn in the "bang for your buck" category,  they can be had cheap and play much better than alot of stuff out there.

Selmer Bb full Boehm clarinet

Well this is a really, really cool instrument.  Here's a Selmer Bb clarinet with full Boehm keywork,  with the K series serial numbering (from the 1930's).
Apart from a small crack in the bell this clarinet is in fine shape.  I fully refurbished this and the results are very pleasing.  It has a very mellow, dark sound. 
The full Bohem keywork allows for fingering all the day down to Eb (the lower clarinet body is longer and contains and extra tone hole).  Also featured is an articulated G# key and duplicate levers for the left hand pinky keys (you can play every note with left or right pinky!)
I really love the old Selmers, which I could work on one every month!  When will the next one roll through???

Pedler Bb clarinet

Here's a Pedler Bb clarinet made in Elkhart In.
This was after Martin bought the Harry Pedler Co.
These are super common to find on Ebay or wherever,  and I picked one up to see what they're all about.  They can be had very very cheaply for a wood clarinet.
I refurbished this clarinet and installed new leather pads.  The verdict is:  its decent!  The keywork I would say is a little unrefined/crude, for sure it doesn't feel as nice under the hands as a nicer instrument would.  But the wood is of decent quality and it does play pretty well in all the registers.  I would say this is likely a student/intermediate clarinet at best,  but honestly I've played MUCH worse instruments for the price.  I probably would buy another one of these at some point.

Edmond Chedeville C clarinet

Well you may or may not know this, but I love Albert system clarinets.
This one as refurbished recently, an Edmond Chedeville clarinet in the key of C.
I had this one around for awhile and really thought I might not ever sell it.  It has a lovely, sweet tone that only a vintage French clarinet of this era has.  I think C clarinets are my favorite!
An interesting note, Edmond Chedeville was in fact the cousin of Henri Chedeville, the famous mouthpiece maker.  

Kohlert Bass clarinet

Here's a fun one, a bass clarinet!  I don't get these through the shop too often,  I try to buy them when I can but they're not too common. 
This one came to me needing alot of work.  Everything was there and no major damage was to be found, but for sure this horn had seen some usage in the past and some of the previous repairs were not done so well.
So lucky for me I've been jonesing for a complete overhaul on a bass clarinet! 
This was made by Kohlert after they moved from Graslitz to Winnenden Germany.  They always made fine instruments and this one is no different in that respect.
I'm sure this was intended to be a professional instrument when it was made,  it features a double vented register mechanism (student and many intermediate bass clarinets have only one vent for the entire upper register).
Now usually with a double register vent on a bass clarinet the upper vent is found at the lower end of the neck.  On this Kohlert they actually stretched the upper body section and shortened the neck so the upper vent is now on the upper body section!  Pretty cool.
The neck came to me already bearing some brass patches on the neck, I'm assuming it had "pull down" that created some cracks when repaired.  Its done well and looks ok.
The bell was badly dinged on the bottom, which is not uncommon.  I got the worst of the dents out but it will never look great,  no big deal as its a cosmetic issue only.
After overhaul this horn plays great!  I really wish I had a reason to keep a bass clarinet around but I really don't.  The new owner will be very happy!

1920s Holton C melody saxophone

Here's a really neat old Frank Holton C melody saxophone I just finished a full restoration on.

This horn is bare brass including the keys which was a very common finish in this era.  It looks great!

I did everything you can imagine with this horn, cleaning, straightening, dent work, key work, new pads, regulation, adjustment, neck work (the neck was pulled down of course).

The end results were excellent.  The horn plays and sounds great, ergonomically it is more comfortable to play than last Buescher C melody through the shop.   The key work setup is pretty comfy really.  Although it does have the curved tenor style neck it is possible to find a good playing position (which many folks complain about with the curved necks).

One thing to mention about this horn,  it came with the original white pillow pads,  VERY soft pads with no rivets, super soft felt backing,  and only a stitch of thread holding the center of the pad down.  Taking the horn apart I realized I may have been the first person to disassemble this instrument in over 90 years!  Very cool.

The original case is very nice, the inside is corduroy!!!  The original mouthpiece I had opened up a bit by my friend Peter Deley in Portland.  It has the typical muted C melody sound and is neat but this horn really opens up with a medium chamber tenor mouthpiece,  which is how we' ve been playing it.

Also note some of the extra key work.  As is typical of 20's horns there is the forked Eb mechanism (which I set up to be fully operational) and a G# trill key (this one is not part of the lower stack which is not common),  but also has an extra key on the side for an upper C/D trill! 

This one isn't for sale as of now.  Too cool!

Place Musical Instrument Co alto

Well here's a fantastic old alto saxophone made by Buescher for "Place Musical Instrument Co RI" sometime in the 1920s.
This is basically a Buescher True Tone,   so you can be sure this is a sweet, sweet player. 
Looks like this was lacquered at some point,  I won't say "re-lacquer" but more like "first lacquer".  In the 1920's horns weren't lacquered, they were bare brass or silver or gold plated.  It wasn't until the 30s and later that lacquer became a common option by the major manufacturers.   So when I say "first lacquer" I mean this horn was certainly a bare brass instrument that at some point someone had lacquered.   The patina is awesome, this horn looks lovely.
I did a full servicing on this horn,  tear down and clean, keys and rods cleaned, assembled and replaced any bad pads,  replaced any worn or missing adjustment materials,  fixed worn key work/mechanism slop, neck fitting,  full adjustment/regulation..........the end result being a very nice playing vintage horn that is playing on mostly older pads.  
This was one of those horns where I could probably argue it needs a full repad, but, most of the pads were still sealing that I just replaced the worst ones.   The thing is, these old stencil horns are so undervalued that it makes zero sense to overhaul/repad unless someone is paying me for it.   So in this case I brought back from the dead a non playing horn and will be finding a new home for it.  I'm sure someone will very happy!
Some things to note about this horn:  it has some of the classic 1920's features like pearl button G# key touchpiece, forked Eb (this one came sprung shut), and G# trill key. 
Also note, like many horns from this era and especially stencils,  there is no aux front F key.

I love everything about this horn and it was a true pleasure to be of service to it.

Horn pileup!

Well folks there's no picture to accompany this post as I'm too lazy to get off my butt and make my way down to the basement workshop,  but I thought it'd be cool to give a quick update on whats on the horizon.
I've been able to pick up many instruments and all will be for sale, eventually.
Here's what's up:
-Kohlert Winnenden bass clarinet
-Lyon & Healy "American Professional" C melody sax
-Holton C melody sax
-Evette & Schaeffer (Santoni) alto sax
-Conn "transitional" alto sax 1930
-Conn 6M artist alto sax 1956
-Buescher True Tone series III alto
-Pan American (Conn) tenor sax
-Selmer A clarinet, full boehm keywork!
-Edmond Chedeville C LP Albert system clarinet
-Evette & Schaeffer (Malerne) alto sax
-Grand Rapids Band Instrument Co (York) euphonium

Also a few other "deals" in the works so likely this time next week the pile will be even greater!

Olds Ambassador trombone

Here's another one of those posts where you might ask "why the heck are you posting about this horn?"
Well as much as I adore the vintage instruments of yesteryear I have to pay some respect to the student instruments like this Olds Ambassador trombone.
They're not uncommon.  You can find one of these pretty easily,  the cool thing is they're built like tanks,  play decently,  and will just keep on truckin'!
This model was from the Fullerton Ca days,  previous to that they were made in Los Angeles (I believe the build quality was even better in the LA days).
The horn sports your typical small bore/small bell student setup.

If you think good music can't be played on one of these look up Don Drummond,  a famous Jamaican Ska player, one of my favorites,  who apparently played one of these!  I'm sure he only played it out of necessity, being poor and isolated,  but he can sure make it sing!

Also to note with this horn is the original brown molded plastic case,  classic 70's stuff here.

King 5B Symphony trombone

Here's a pretty cool old trombone I picked up recently.
This was the King 5B Symphony model.
Its basically like a 4B but with bigger bell and throat,  the classic .547" bore symphonic trombone.
With the bigger sound these are almost like a small bass trombone!
I'm just noticing now that in this pic I haven't even dusted off the bell yet, doh!
This was an instrument that I resold quickly without working on it.  It didn't need much work to begin with and I'm not set up for a chem clean (which is mostly all this horn needed).  

Evette & Schaeffer tenor sax

Here's an old Evette & Schaeffer tenor saxophone that just came through.  
These were Buffets student line "back in the day".  Originally they had this line made by a small French company, Malerne,  but at some point in the mid 60's they switched production to Santoni in Italy.
These horns are pretty cool.  The keywork is sturdy,  you could say its not refined but certainly not bad by any means,  this wasn't meant to be a pro horn so you can't expect pro keywork.  The build quality is good.  The sound is great!  These are very free blowing horns to say the least.

This one in particular came to me with very good pads,  they had the domed brown plastic resos ala Selmer.  I had to pull the neck up which was pulled down slightly,  replace the neck key pad,  then just a basic regulation/adjustment.........
Also to mention this horn was pretty clean,  most of the original lacquer was present and it only had a few small dings! 
Another one of those "bang for your buck" horns here,   right now I have another E&S alto by Santoni that I'll be finishing up in the next week and pretty soon an older Malerne made alto is showing up......so stay tuned!

Old French ebonite clarinet!

All these instruments have a story,  certainly a big part of that story I'll never know but I can relate the part that I do know,  and here we go with this oldie.
This clarinet was one of those buys that happened sort of on accident.  I was at someone's house to pick up an old Holton alto I was buying,  which I posted about earlier.   The seller tells me he has other instruments and we go through his garage,  nothing very exciting,  then he pulls this case out and I get a little excited.
Then we opened the case and I find a VERY faded/greenish old Bb clarinet!  He said it was his grandfathers (as was the Holton alto) and he had left it in the window for many years......hence the fading to the ebonite body.  Well I couldn't find a makers name at first glance and wasn't so hot on having another low value project in the workshop,  but I couldn't turn down the $10 price!
Fastforward a bit and I am in the workshop with a magnifying lens trying to find a maker,  when I discover on the bell, faintly,  L. Lebret Paris!
The name didn't ring a bell but I started researching. 
Turns out Lebret had his own workshop in Paris until his apprentice,  Robert Malerne took over.   I think most of us have heard of Malerne,  his firm turned out many, many instruments.
So things are getting more interesting eh?  Now the Lebret name means this clarinet is old,  and some features of the keywork point this out to us:  the left hand pinky levers are mounted on a single post, which the French abandoned after 1930 or so,  the thumb rest is of the "old style",  and there is no adjuster screw on the G# key (although sometimes I see this missing on much later clarinets!).

At this point I'm getting excited about refurbishing this instrument.  After tearing it down it was obvious this was a finely crafted instrument,  the keywork was very well made and the plating was excellent!  We shouldn't forget that at this point in the history of clarinets ebonite was a new material and was not deemed to be used on student instruments only,  and this clarinet attests to that. 

Now as I mentioned the body was very faded and green.  I looked in to restoring this and found that folks have had success with using black leather dye,  which I ended up using.  It made the clarinet look black again!
Rebuilding the instrument was a joy,  new leather pads installed, cork replaced as needed.
Play testing was very exciting as I realized the instrument played as well as I hoped. 

Instruments like these are interesting in the world of buying and selling.  Old ebonite clarinets seem to have little or no value,  which is perplexing!  I don't think I'll start in on the merits of ebonite clarinets here but I may at some point!  Just look up Ridenour clarinets,  who are manufacturing professional quality ebonite clarinets RIGHT NOW.

So cool that this clarinet turned out the way it did,  I love my job and here's another reason why!

G Penzel "Professional" clarinet

This clarinet is fairly rare.  I've done some research on this one,  it wasn't so straightforward!

See,  the Penzel Mueller company is fairly well known,  I've worked on many of their instruments and am well impressed by their build quality and playing characteristics.  
When this clarinet showed up I was a bit puzzled.  I knew that both Penzel and Mueller had separate firms in the early 1900's before they joined up, but this clarinet,  marked only with Penzel's name,  was certainly not from this era based on the keywork.
Well with some digging it turns out that sometime after WWII,  perhaps even in the 1950s,  near the end of the Penzel Mueller company, they offered the "G Penzel" line.  All of these instruments had serial numbers starting with the letter "U" as this one does.
Three models were offered in this line,  the Professional, Pacemaker,  and Bel Canto.

I just had a Bel Canto thru the shop a few months back!  The Bel Canto was supposed to be a "student" instrument but certainly was not built like one or play like one, it was fantastic!

Anyway back to the "Professional" clarinet here.   Not sure who they were aiming this clarinet at but it seems like they intended it to be for the professional musician, eh?
The wood and build quality are typical Penzel Mueller style here, top notch.
The only downside to this instrument in particular was that the key plating was very very tired, worn, patina'd.   Could be worse.
New leather pads were installed and any cork that needed replacing was replaced.
It plays great!
I believe the bore is .585" if I remember correctly.  I should write these things down!
This clarinet came with the original (I'm assuming) Penzel Mueller "Artist" mouthpiece which was very nice,  good quality ebonite with a nice facing.
As of writing this I'm just finishing up a run of clarinets through the workshop,  I have 7 soon to be 8 clarinets up for sale! 
I always say working on clarinets is a breath of fresh air after the sometimes complicated scenarios that happen with vintage (and non vintage!) saxophones.
Just as a teaser there's an old Kohlert bass clarinet showing up this week!!!!!

Old Holton Revelation alto sax

Here's a neat old sax by Frank Holton,  the serial # dates this to 1910 which seems quite old for a horn with same side bell keys,  most pre world war II saxophones I see have the split key design,  B and Bb are on different sides of the bell.
Also this horn doesn't have a Bis key!
And not uncommon for the era there is no front F.
No forked Eb which WAS common for this era!
This horn played well on mostly VERY old pads......they not only didn't have resonators they didn't have rivets either! I replaced a few bad pads to get the horn playing and was very impressed with its sound.
Seems at some point the horn was re-lacquered,  and done very well! 
The model is Revelation. 
Thumbs up!

Very cool French clarinet

I recently had the pleasure of restoring this wonderful old Bb clarinet that was sold with the Woodwind Co NY name on it.
For those of you familiar with woodwind instruments the name Woodwind Co will not be new,  they are mostly known for hard rubber mouthpieces that are made from excellent high quality blanks,  especially the old "Steel Ebonite" types.
But they had instruments made for them too,  and this clarinet was in fact made by some small firm in France.   I'm not sure who made this,  certainly not Malerne (a maker of many stencils),  but I can say it is of high quality!
I've had many clarinets through the shop this year and this one is up there with the best,  even compared to top names like Selmer.
The wood is nice, tight grained, and crack free.
The key work is well wrought and comfortable.
It plays well in tune and has a nice quality to its sound,  excellent really.
And of course it comes with the original matching Woodwind Co mouthpiece,  this one having the G7 facing.
So there you have it folks,  if you see one these come up for sale at a yard sale or Ebay,  don't hesitate to buy,  they are great clarinets,  and honestly a real bargain for what they sell for. 

Penzel Mueller Bel Canto clarinet

Here's another good old clarinet to come through the shop.
This one was made by Penzel Mueller and is marked Bel Canto,  apparently a lower end offering by them but its hard to tell,  the quality is so good!
I had to replace all the pads on this clarinet.  In the end it came out being a nice one!  The keywork is well made and feels good,  the tone is classic.   I'm not sure I've ever had a Penzel Mueller clarinet in my hands that wasn't at least decent.   Stay tuned in the next few months for another Penzel,  a "Professional" model that is currently in the lineup (after quite a few other projects!).
Although this was "low end" for Penzel Mueller I would consider this solidly an intermediate instrument.

Yamaha/Vito alto sax

Well here's a post about a horn that really isn't all that uncommon, but,  in a world of increasingly inferior instruments being produced, bought, and sold,  these horns stand out as excellent values for the student musician. 
This is a Vito alto that was produced by Yamaha,  who made horns for Vito for a number of years.   In essence this is identical to the YAS-23 model and as anyone will tell you,  these horns rock.  I'm constantly amazed by the quality of these Yamaha instruments.   This one needed basic servicing,   and yes,  certainly shows wear from age,  but is mechanically sound and played top to bottom!  I sold this to someone who was renting an instrument for their child,  paying WAY too much for an instrument that was/never will be as good as something like this.
I'm still very much a "vintage" instrument person but I am very motivated to also get quality used instruments in to the hands of students. 

Dukoff tenor mouthpiece!

Well here's a rare treat,  a Bobby Dukoff Hollywood tenor sax mouthpiece!

This is the first one of these through my hands.   The story is a common one,  I was buying a horn off someone and guess what came with it?  Well you know the answer to that.  In this case I was picking up a very old Holton Revelation alto...........the mouthpiece on the neck was none other than this Dukoff tenor piece.   I wasn't really fully aware of its value until I asked around.   Much to my surprise this baby sold for a nice some of money to someone who is VERY happy with it!  When this came through the shop I didn't have a good working tenor around so unfortunately I can't really attest to its playing qualities.  Next time!

Getzen Elkhorn tenor sax

Here's another interesting tenor saxophone to come through the shop recently.

It's marked with the Getzen Elkhorn name, but,  not actually made by Getzen.   In this case the company only manufactured brass instruments and they farmed out woodwinds to other companies,  this tenor saxophone was certainly made in Italy probably by Orsi.

I had another old Italian tenor through the shop in the last year,   they're well built, sturdy,  decent playing horns.  This one was actually pretty darn clean,  the original lacquer was well maintained and there were only a few small dings.   I believe there was one not so neat post re-solder on the low end,  and the neck showed the most damage although was fully functional. 
The pads were all old, but, still sealing and I was able to just do a basic once over on the horn before giving it my stamp of approval. 

Another plus for this horn is that it came with a nice old French hard rubber mouthpiece.   It was one of the types marked on France on the side of the table,  these are often quite good.

These are good horns for the money!

Another Conn Albert clarinet

I'm always pleased as punch to work on an Albert system clarinet.  I love them!  Not too long ago I posted about another Conn ebonite Albert clarinet.  It had some extra keys for duplicate fingerings and played decently. 
This one has a more common Albert system setup.   This is the standard for Albert system clarinets,  15 keys with 5 rings and rollers on the pinky keys.  There are simpler systems,  notably those without ring keys on the upper joints and no rollers for the pinkys, but its more common to see the former.
I refurbished this instrument replacing about half the pads, the other half of the pads were mostly leather and doing fine!
I was totally impressed with this one!  The tone was lovely and it played well,  better than the last one even.  
For details sake this is a Bb Low Pitch instrument that dates to the early 1900's.
Once again another old instrument is lovingly restored and released back in to the world for future generations to enjoy!  I love my job!

Lyon Healey Bb soprano sax

This was a great great project!  Lyon & Healey of Chicago never made their own horns but had other folks implement their designs.  I was sure this was a Martin instrument due to the soldered on beveled tone holes,  but it was brought to my attention that this was likely made by Courtier of Elkhart....learn something new every day!
Anyway this horn needed so much work.  It was beyond filthy when I got it,  although mostly complete.  It was however completely missing a tone hole which I fabricated from brass stock on my Taig lathe.  That part came out better than expected!
The actual overhaul part of the horn went very smoothly,  the mechanics were overhauled too via swedging and countersinking of pivots,  the end result being a very nice playing horn!  
I really would have loved to keep this horn,  I love the engraving and it plays and sounds just lovely!

Martin stencil alto (Silvertone)

Oh boy here's another Martin!  This one has been around our house for some time,  as it has been my partners main axe for a number of years now.  She's moving on now as she's now in love with an old King!
This horn is splendid.  It was made for Sears and marked "Silvertone",  came out of the Martin factory I'm guessing 1950's......it has same side bell keys and a Front F key.    As some folks say "a Martin is a Martin is a Martin".............this horn has that unmistakable Martin sound!   I actually haven't done much work to this horn as it came to us in great playing shape and has been well maintained.   Whoever the new owner is will be very very satisfied with this instrument!
By the way I have a friend who's been dealing with old horns for many years,  he tells me that often times the Silvertone horns are very good.......perhaps whoever was doing the buying for Sears was good at getting the good ones?  At least for some period of time? Who knows!

Martin Freres Lamonte Bb clarinet

Ok so I usually highlight really neat old vintage instruments here but sometimes I like to highlight decent lower end instruments that come through.  This Martin Freres Lamonte Bb clarinet  is still vintage as it was likely made in the 50s or so,  but it is certainly a student instrument.  I have a few of these that were literally given to me or traded for next to nothing.  Looking online you won't find much positive info on these other than they were low end student models.
I was not expecting much.  Luckily the wood was crack free and most of the pads were ok,  so I stripped it down and oiled the bore and body.  I think I ended up replacing one pad and some missing key cork, made some adjustments,  the usual.  I could tell by working on it that the keywork was fairly crude,  not a lot of time or effort was put in on this instrument. 
However,  when I play tested I was pleasantly surprised!  Yes because of the keywork it is a little clunky to get around on, but the tone was not half bad!  Certainly I feel like this instrument is still low end and suitable for someones first wood clarinet or a returning adult..........but its not terrible by any means.  Maybe I got one of the decent ones, who knows.  I'll find out soon as I work through the pile,  I think there are two more in the basement!

1920's HN White King GOLD!!!

Oh my this horn is something else!  This is the first 1920's HN White I've had my hands on,  at least that I can remember.   These old kings had fairly advanced keywork for the time......Front F key even on this early 20's horn!  Also the G# key cup is located on the back of the body tube,  both octave vents are slanted,  and the G# key has no stop for the touch piece (which takes some getting used to).
The tone is AWESOME!  Pretty bright for an old American horn,  this one plays on mostly older pads and really could use an overhaul (which it may end up getting!).
The plating is burnished gold and the engraving is exquisite! 
Also even the case is pretty neat,  it has space for holding a Bb clarinet in the lid for the doublers out there! 
It looks like this horn is actually sticking around.......after being listed for sale my partner fell in love with it!

1920's Buescher True Tone Alto

This horn really sings!  This is a 1920s Buescher True Tone alto saxophone that just went through the workshop here.  The silver plating was quite worn and stained,   but everything else was pretty straight and good to go!  With this horn I replaced any worn pads and missing key cork,  fully adjusted the keywork,  and of course a clean and polish.   I was knocked out by the tone when I did the first play test...........these True Tone altos are famous for their tone and the later ones are even particularly known for being THE classical horn.........due to Rascher and his followers.
This is the first series of the True Tones.  Later models had a front F key and better neck,  the neck on these early ones didn't have the best intonation for the upper register,  although quite honestly on this horn I didn't notice anything too out of the ordinary.
I really hope to work on many more of these,  I love them!

Couesnon Bb clarinet

So there's a story to all of these instruments,  this one is no exception.
I saw this old Couesnon Bb clarinet at a pawn shop that I frequent,   the price was too high so I waited and waited (they're the kind of place that won't take offers, which is not common).
Finally the price got down to reality.........and I pulled the trigger.

Just recently I had time to give it a refurbishment along with new leather pads.   I was struck by the quality of the wood,  which was crack free,  the perfection of the tone holes (which can be sometimes bad on an old wood instrument!), and the well wrought key work.

Needless to say when I was done and was able to play test I totally fell in love!  I end up selling mostly all the instruments I have here because I have to make a living,  and this clarinet was no exception.  I put it up for sale but then changed my mind,  the more I played it the more I liked it!

The key setup is basic Boehm but the instrument is old enough that it still has the wraparound register key, I would say its pre-1920's.  Couesnon didn't mark their models at this point,  they were all on the same level,  that is professional.
The bore is smallish by modern standards at approx 14.65mm, but this allows for a very sweet centered tone and above average intonation.
I typically try to match the bore of the mouthpiece to the barrel and I had a hard time finding something I liked until I tried an old French mouthpiece that I believe is a Riffault,  its marked "France" and G8........the bore is slightly larger than the barrel at 14.75" but in this case the results are excellent...........its close enough that the intonation is fine and the instrument just sings and sings!   I look forward to keeping this instrument around for a long long time,  pure joy!

Conn Albert system clarinet

Albert system clarinets..........alot of people don't really know what this means,  if they do they just think of an antiquated instrument that is only used by a very few people these days.   It is true they are not used by many folks,  with the Boehm system of keywork being by far the type of clarinet someone plays and is familiar with.
Now as for me,  I LOVE Albert system clarinets.    I really got a taste of their uniqueness while living in Philadelphia, I happened to buy out a large lot of old Albert system clarinet that kept me busy for most of a year.  At this point I've probably worked on more of these instruments than standard Boehm ones! 
To be very basic about the differences between the Albert system and Boehm,  I can say that obviously the Albert has less keys and less options for hitting each note.  Whereas on a Boehm instrument there are usually at least two ways to  hit most notes on the Albert there is often only one.  For example your low note,  which can be hit by EITHER pinky on a Boehm instrument,  can only be played by using BOTH pinkys on an Albert.
I think if you are playing modern classical music then the stripped down nature of of the Albert would surely be a burden (although one has to remember that until Boehm instruments came in to use everyone played the standard classical repertoire on Albert clarinets!).
What I love about the Albert's is the simple nature of the keywork and the flexibility of tonality that it allows for.   The system is a little less refined so notes can REALLY be bent in many directions which is great for coloring your playing,  microtonal things are possible for sure.  That is why the instruments are still in favor for folks playing very expressive forms of folk music,  Greek and Turkish music,  Dixieland & traditional jazz, and Klezmer all come to mind.  

Now this instrument in particular.........its an old 1919 Conn and its made of Ebonite,  which I think is great!  The toneholes are in great shape because they don't wear down or get chipped like wood does and of course no cracks in the instrument to deal with.
This one isn't marked with a model # but I think its the 14N due to the extra keys,  it has a duplicate left hand pinky lever and 5 rings.  
It is in Bb and is Low Pitch so it plays to A-440.
Conn doesn't necessarily have a great reputation for clarinets like they do for saxophones,  but I have to say after working on some the older Conns with the "eagle" trademark,  they're quite decent!   The bore is fairly narrow at 14.65mm which is pretty normal for that era,  the only issue is finding a smaller bore mouthpiece,  as using a modern wide bore mouthpiece may present some tuning issues.

Martin Pan American tenor

Well here's a neat old horn for you to check out.   This tenor saxophone is labeled Pan American which is the classic Conn made "student" or second line horn by the folks at CG Conn.   However,  this one is NOT made by Conn!  Apparently in the later 50's the contracted to have Martin make horns for them with the Pan American engraving.  This horn is one of them,  bearing all the classic features of a Martin made horn, in fact this horn is identical to a Martin Indiana except for the key guards as far as I can tell.   This horn showed up at my door very dinged up, missing pads,  bent keys, broken side Bb key.
Many hours later this is the end result.  Certainly showing some signs of use,  lacquer loss, some evidence of past abuses,  some bad previous solder jobs (not by me!),  but it plays and sounds awesome!  I used Ferrees pads for this horn,  which I tend to use for almost everything,  this horn was set up with flat metal resonators. 
There wasn't anything out of the ordinary that needed done on this horn, but ALOT of basic work:  dents and dings needed ironed out,  some posts needed resoldered,  key guards needed resoldered,  broken needle and flat springs,  tone holes leveled,  many bent keys,  some bent key rods,  minor slop in the keywork leading to swedging and pivot countersinking,  etc.
All in all this horn is very comfortable to play and has a gorgeous Martin tone! 

HN White "Cleveland" tenor sax

I really like these old Cleveland horns.  I've had a few through here but this is the first tenor and its just a great horn.  This one is from the 50's and its in darn good shape!  Most of the lacquer is there, hardly any dents,  the keywork is smooth and the pads are older but it plays great up and down.  These horns are a great value.  This would be King's answer to the Martin Indiana or Conn Pan American, "student" horns that were really very similar in body construction to the pro models of each company.   Of course these "student" horns of yesteryear blow alot of modern horns out of the water!  I'm thinking whoever ends up buying this horn is gonna be happy for a long long time.

Yes, a Selmer Bundy alto!

Well its kinda funny to follow up a posting about a legendary Conn 10M tenor with a post about a.......Selmer Bundy alto!  But wait,  it is a little more exciting than you think.
Most folks know the Bundy name,  it has been used on student instruments for many years and about the most common horn to find on craigslist or the local flea market.

The thing is,  the older pre-"Bundy II" horns were actually based on older Buescher designs and for all intents and purposes were simplified Aristocrats! 
The horn in this pic is probably 1975-80,  towards the end of the run, but still is very much a good, solid,  decent sounding alto saxophone.

So at some point they changed everything and the "Bundy II" came out........these are just as common, or maybe even more common...............they're just not as good.  Honestly I don't think they're bad but they just don't stack up to the previous horns that were made for years and years.

My point is,  if you want a more than decent sax to learn on,  or even use as a backup,  look for one of the older Bundy's,  make sure it does NOT say Bundy II,  they usually say Selmer Bundy or H&A Selmer Bundy.........and they'll always have really cool looking wire keyguards for the low B/Bb!

Conn 10M

Well here's a first one for me,  a Conn 10M tenor saxophone.

I've know about these for years but never picked one up due to the high prices.  They're well known for they're sound and comfortable, fast action.  They were also made for a long period of time, from the 30's all the way up through the 60's at least.

The one in the pic is towards the later end of the timeline,  it was still an Elkhart made instrument and was likely made in 1965.
These later 10M's are not as valuable as the older "naked lady" horns but most people say they play very similarly.  
Besides not having an engraving of a woman in various scenes these models also do NOT have rolled tone holes and also sport the underslung, double socket neck.

This one was in decent shape.  The original lacquer was mostly intact,  it had some dings here and there but nothing major,  the pads were older with plain rivets but it did play up and down. 
And the sound........huge!  You can really understand why people love these horns,  between the sound and the extreme comfort of the keyboard,  they're really something else!

Orsi alto saxophone, another Italian horn!

Well here's another nice old horn leaving the workbench and being offered up for sale to the world.

This one is made by an Italian company, Orsi.

I have no idea what model this is,  or really how old it is as there isn't much info out there on these. My guess would be it was made in the 60's and was designed as a student/intermediate horn.

Its well built!  Perhaps the keywork is a little heavy,  some would call this sturdy others would say sturdy!  The tone is nice,  I really like the way this one sounds.

By the way I'm thinking the bore of this instrument is slightly narrower than many other altos.....I always check the neck/socket for leaking and in this case my neck checking tool wouldn't fit in the body of the horn!  This is the first time this has happened.  

I think someone will happy to have this horn,  it plays sweetly, nice and dark,  and has a nice engraving to boot!

Conn New Wonder II alto sax, in for repair!

Wow these old Conn's are cool!  

This is what is known as the New Wonder Series II alto.   

A customer brought this horn in for repair,  a play test showed that it was basically playable but stuffy and hard to hit the low notes.   The pads looked okay but the neck was loose and obviously leaking. 

I was able to get this horn going pretty well by re-fitting the leaking neck (expanding the neck tenon), then a full adjustment/regulation of the instrument which included re floating/seating some of the pads.

The hallmark of these horns is their sound!   Its absolutely huge!  This horn really sings and is easily one of the better horns through the shop in recent history.

Note in the photo the mouthpiece that was in the case,  an old Otto Link 4 start model,  which is really cool!   We found that it played ok with the horn but in the end it was decided the horn really played & sounded best with an old large chambered hard rubber mouthpiece.  

Hope to see more of these!  I have a few Conns here to overhaul but no New Wonders.  I'll have to be looking out for one to buy!

Guy Humphrey Paris Bb clarinet

This isn't the first Guy Humphrey I've seen.  Last year I worked on a Guy Humphrey alto clarinet and I remember it being quite nice. 

I really don't know who made these,  folks seem to say Guy Humphrey is a trade name but I can't really say this seems like a Malerne product,  although it could be from another French firm.

The instrument is  nice!  The wood is crack free, the keywork is well made and feels good under the fingers.   The key plating is quite worn,  its showing alot of patina!  

The bore is on the narrow side,  approx 14.65mm.  This clarinet didn't come with a mouthpiece and I had to go through my whole box to find one that worked well.  I always try to match the exit bore of the mouthpiece to the entrance bore of the barrel, which is common practice.  

This clarinet plays well.  Its unbelievable how cheaply one can get these sorts of clarinets for!

Of course one has to consider condition.  I won't reveal how little I got this clarinet for,  but it was very little.    It needed almost everything.  I think I kept one tenon cork and maybe a few key corks but otherwise it took pretty much everything a clarinet could need including swedging and pivot countersinking.  As usual I re padded with Ferrees tan leather pads which are my go to pad for clarinets.   

I just played this instrument in rehearsal today and I'm happy to have it back among the living again!

Carl Fischer alto.........Malerne!

So this little beauty came in to the shop this week, its marked Carl Fischer but is a stencil by Malerne of France.

These are nice horns!  This one has really nice looking lacquer,  a sharp engraving,  and is well built. I personally wouldn't say these are up to the build quality of a Beaugnier,  but,  they certainly sound good and can be had cheap!

You'll  notice in the pic the neck has some pull down happening.  I do fix this sort of thing but I take it on a case by case basis.  In this case the neck fit in the socket was perfect and the instrument plays fantastic as-is.  The angle of the neck is also still comfortable so I decided to leave it as is,  I really like to be able to offer super affordable, playable, vintage instruments to folks.   In this case fixing the neck wouldn't have made the horn play better but would have taken some time,  then I would be inclined to charge more.  Heck,  I'm busy these days!

Anyway I'm pleased with these old French altos,  this one will make someone very happy.

Ok so the latest project is done,  and its a real sweetheart of a horn. 

This soprano sax is in the key of C and was made by Martin,  its stenciled "Wurlitzer American".

This isn't the first C soprano I've worked on and I'm happy that this one came out even better than the last.  The tricky aspects for this horn were really the pad sizing.  I used the thinnest pads available and in many cases these were not thin enough and had to be lapped thinner, then of course using only a small amount of shellac so as to not increase the thickness.  Luckily I got all the toneholes perfectly level first so the padding went just fine,  and the horn has that sweet oboe like C soprano sound!

Vito Model 37 alto saxophone....Beaugnier!!!!

Okay so maybe you might say I'm excited about every instrument I write about here,  and you'd be right.   I have a real affinity towards the instruments I work on.   When it comes to instruments that I buy with the intention of repairing or keeping for personal use,  I really am mostly interested in vintage instruments.......what can I say,  I like old stuff!   

Here's another horn I dig.  Alot of other people do too.   I'm sure you've heard the name Vito, they've been around for some time and I won't go in to the history here but they've put out alot of instruments.......and sometimes they didn't make the instruments they were selling.   Here's a perfect example.

This is a Vito model 37 alto sax that was made by a tiny French firm called Beaugnier.  Its rare to find a horn that actually has the Beuagnier name,  but they made a number of instruments for other folks including Vito.    This horn is likely from the 60's although the serial numbers on these are not so accurate.   The deal with these is that they were sent from the Beaugnier factory in France to the Vito headquarters in Kenosha Wisconsin..........where they were assembled and set up by the folks there.  

So this is a pretty cool horn.  Pretty heavy,  very well made,  the keywork is solid,  it feels good under the fingers.   The sound is what you would call "French"............maybe a generic term but basically alot of the American horns have a wider spread to the overtones,  whereas the French sound is a little more focused........although in the case of the these horns there is plenty of sound to go around.   I really think you could pull off playing any music on one of these horns,  classical/legit, jazz, pop etc.

I'm not sure if these were originally intended to be student or intermediate horns.........really they're so well made that you could probably play one of these for life and not feel like you're missing out on much!   Seriously.  And they're criminally undervalued.  Which is good for you!  

This particular horn was stripped down, cleaned,  any bad pads/cork were replaced,  adjusted, regulated, swedged as needed.   Its looking for a good home.   Someone's gonna be happy!

Projects, projects!

Well things have been busy here, folks!

My first focus was to start/complete the work on an old Vito (Beaugnier) model 37 alto sax.  You can see this in the beginning stages in the 2nd pic above, just before its bath.
I will do a separate post on this horn,  as I am just finishing up and will be posting it for sale in the next day or so.  Its a great horn!

The 1st pic shows an old Wurlitzer American C soprano,  made by Martin,  in the process of overhaul.   This horn came to me in its original pads and I'm doing a full overhaul,  at this point the instrument was stripped,  body and keys cleaned and polished,  and I'm currently checking/leveling the tone holes.   On the topic of tone holes.........working my way up from the bottom I've had to level EVERY tone hole,  that makes 8 so far,  with 12 to go.  One may wonder how this can be,  especially with a horn that seemingly hasn't been played much (original pads,  little key wear).   The answer is simple:  they used REALLY soft pillow pads that would conform to any surface!  It didn't matter if the tone holes weren't perfect,  these pads would seal.........and also feel really mushy under the fingers.
Nowadays we use much firmer pads which feel much nicer, crisper, snappier under the fingers AND hold a good seal for a long time if properly set up.   The catch being that when you overhaul an old horn you gotta level every tone hole,  as today's modern pads ain't gonna work out otherwise!
I'll update more on this horn as I go,  I expect to be assembling/padding this week along with new adjustment materials and key fitting as needed.

The 3rd pic is a shot my partner took of the old Italian tenor that I posted about earlier, its just a nice thing to look at, that old aged lacquer!

Things have been busy, currently sold out of everything that was for sale but I'll have some things up soon, also customer repairs!

Well the mailman brought some great stuff to the house last week, I was tickled!

On the left we have an old Lyon & Healey gold plated Bb soprano,  complete with an engraving of Pan playing a flute!  It needs an overhaul but boy, I can't WAIT to get this horn singing again!

On the right we have an old Italian tenor,  I can't make out the name but it matches other horns made by Orsi that have various labels like La Mont, La velle, etc.  

This horn actually plays top to bottom pretty darn well!  I had to reglue one pad and put a piece of cork under a section of the octave rocker, but,  in the mean time we're gonna keep this one around!

Lucky for us we have a great friend and mentor in Portland who has quite the mouthpiece collection, while we were there this past weekend we were able to try out  a number of pieces for this tenor and found two nice old French hard rubber pieces that just make this horn sing.  

Feeling pretty lucky.

Old GM Bundy Paris, Selmer in disguise!!

Well I'm excited to present the next clarinet to come out of the workshop here,  an old 1920s/30s GM Bundy Paris Bb clarinet.

It is fairly well known that these were in fact right from the Selmer factory, stamped with the Bundy name.  Bundy was an employee of Selmer's and took over the US division that was just starting up, before manufacturing happened in Elkhart for Selmer USA they supplied French Selmers to be sold with the GM Bundy name..........so this instrument is really identical to a 20's Selmer! 

The wood is nice,  tight grained.  The keywork is comfy, well made, good plating. 

I installed new leather pads, added/replaced missing adjustment materials,  replaced one tenon cork, cleaned/oiled the keywork, tightened a few posts,  straightened/aligned keys, etc.

I was very excited to play it and am not disappointed.  It played well with various mouthpieces but I settled on an old Leblanc hard rubber piece that really just sounded wonderful.  

The bore is 14.85mm,  which I tend to like alot.  Ok lets face it I like all the various bore sizes for different reasons but this clarinet really sings.

It is not perfect,  as there are some cracks,  surprise surprise.  The bell has two cracks that run the length,  they are tight and don't buzz or vibrate,  so I left them be.

The barrel also has one tight crack,  It doesn't run to the bore, luckily.

I'm not too put out by cracks,  they are common in wood instruments and repairable.  And really, pretty hard to avoid it seems.  It does however affect the price, as most folks are under the impression that cracks are bad somehow.  Sure,  a crack to the bore that is leaking air will give you issues, but a hairline crack that doesn't leak or a well repaired crack are not problems whatsoever.

It makes me think of cymbals,  I often find that cracked cymbals,  once repaired,  are often real gems, and at a fraction of the price!

Olds Parisian Ambassador alto saxophone

Here's a good old French made horn.  These Parisian Ambassadors were made for Olds by a small French company called Pierret.   I've seen a number of these, and they've always been good.  The keywork is modern, they're well built,  and they have a nice sound,  you might say that "French" sound.  

This particular instrument came to me with a badly pulled down neck, boo!  I had to remove the neck brace,  re-bend the neck to proper angle, then remove the dent/crease that the pulling down left.  After de-scaling the neck (it was filthy) I had to expand the tenon a bit to fit the socket for a perfect seal.

The pads on this horn looked almost new,  I didn't need to do much other than go over it to check on bent keys and regulation. 

A little bit of added regulation/silencing material, a new bumper for the low Bb,  and some dent work all around,  and this horn is ready to go!  I've just been playing it side by side with an old Pan American alto,  I really like them both although they have their differences for sure.  

One thing to note is these Olds Parisian Ambassadors are fairly common and can be had cheaply.  If you're looking for a decent beginner/intermediate horn or a backup horn for your main axe, you can't really go wrong.  I can't say I've had a single issue with the repairs of these horns and they seem sturdy and whats more, they sound great!

Good old Pan American alto saxophone

I love the value in the old "stencil" saxophones.  For a fraction of the price you get an instrument that is often times almost as good as the name brand instrument.  In this case we have a Pan American, usually made by Conn ( I say usually because I have in the shop a Pan Am tenor that was certainly made by Martin).

This alto is post WWII based on the same side bell keys.  The original lacquer is very much intact,  little wear.  There are a few, very few, teeny dings but really this baby is clean!  There is some keywork wear, I'm imagining this horn didn't have a mechanical overhaul anytime recently,  but the wear is minimal enough, and the horn plays very very well.

This horn needed little to make it shine.  Its one of those times where you get a horn, play it,  and then wonder can I even make this any better?  Sometimes I can,  but not always! I mean yeah,  if you fully overhauled this horn it would be taken to the next level,  but this horn played so well on the current pads.  This one needed a new felt bumper for the low C, some minor regulation,  and the neck was loose so I expanded the tenon for a perfect fit. 

The case I'm not sure is original, maybe?  It did come with the original white Pan Am mouthpiece which unfortunately has some cracks in the shank and needs repaired/banded.

One note,  after finishing what work I had to do,  the low register D was not speaking well.  Something was going on,  it was minimal but really the D, even though its known to be a problem note on some older horns,  at least needs to be up to a certain level for it to sound good in the context of notes surrounding it.  

The fix was simple,  the new felt I put on the low C was not allowing the D to vent properly,  once the venting was increased,  problem solved!  

Another Kohlert clarinet

I love the old Kohlert clarinets.  I haven't worked on anything yet from after they moved to Germany but I've had the pleasure of repairing and playing a number of the Bohemian/Czech instruments.

This clarinet in the pic is a Bb clarinet in typical Boehm system keywork.  I was tickled that this one had the original case and mouthpiece, which is always nice.  Also check out the matching green swab,  maybe original?

You may notice (or not) that this clarinet is made of ebonite (or hard rubber, if you prefer).  I love hard rubber instruments because they sound great,  don't have the issues that wood instruments have with temperature/humidity,  and the toneholes are far more likely to be in good shape which means making a pad seat well is much easier!  

This clarinet plays really well on the white leather pads it came with.  I had to replace a few key corks,  adjust the bridge key and crow's foot, and clean the body.  Now its looking for a new home!  I'm really happy with how this instrument plays,  honestly its a GREAT old horn!