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!