You just can’t beat a 1920s-1930s Conn for hugeness of tone. This was a very clean Conn transitional tenor saxophone which I fully repadded. This is a less commonly seen variant with split bell keys and the “naked lady” engraving, which only appeared in this configuration on tenor. By the time the “naked lady” engraving …
This horn is identical to the never-sold SML “Lucerne” stencil I did a while back, and is basically a SML Gold Medal without all the bells and whistles like locking neck ring, rolled toneholes, adjustment screws, and adjustable bumper felts on the keyguards. This was a major overhaul, including manufacturing a replacement neck tenon and tenon …
I recently had the opportunity to overhaul two Conn saxophones built during World War II. To understand why this is unusual and pretty cool, some background is helpful. In the lead-up to American military involvement in World War II, the materials necessary to make saxophones such as brass, steel, and cork became harder and harder to …
This was an early Buffet Super Dynaction tenor saxophone that was in extremely good physical condition. Only a bit of mechanical work needed done, and that which was done was done with an eye towards improving the mechanism while maintaining the excellent condition original lacquer- which was all the more delicate due to the crazing …
I am very lucky to work on quite a few extremely clean and good condition horns, including perhaps a dozen or so a year that are still wearing their original pads. Given that most of what the repairer of a vintage saxophone is dealing with is the effects and ravages of time, wear and tear, …
So this horn ended up being quite challenging and quite rewarding. It was an awful lot of work, but at the end of it all, out came a truly excellent playing baritone. The action was light and fast and easy, the intonation was pretty good, the tone was excellent and the horn was a lot of …
This is going to be a big job! Although this horn is fairly clean physically, there are a few major trouble spots that will provide me with some difficult challenges. There are probably less of these horns in existence than I could count on two hands, so I’m pretty excited to work on it. I’ve …
This was one of those jobs where everything went my way. There is an awful lot in the job of saxophone repair- and probably any job that requires working with aged mechanisms and variable materials- where a certain amount of it just depends on which way the wind blows. You could get a pad seated …