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J.J. Babbitt in Elkhart Indiana is one of (the?) world’s oldest and largest mouthpiece makers, and they make Otto Link and Meyer mouthpieces, among many, many others. In July 2024, my family and I took a 3000+ mile road trip, and along the way we drove through Elkhart. Unexpectedly, thanks to Ryan Lillywhite at Conn-Selmer who saw my Facebook photo of my car and our home-built camper in front of the Selmer building, I was able to tour both Conn-Selmer and the J.J. Babbitt factory. The new owner of J.J. Babbitt, Steve Rorie, graciously took over an hour out of his day to show me around.

SOLD Early SML alto with left hand bell keys, says “Le Strama” on the bell. Looks nearly exactly like the horn they used to make the early “Coleman Hawkins Special” alto- I say nearly exactly because I cannot be certain it is exactly the same, but I do not see any differences myself. These horns are somewhat challenging to work on, but they are some of the only saxophones I have encountered that can even be considered in the same league as a Conn New Wonder I or II for fatness of tone, while also having a certain “French” color to the sound. Super fun to play.

This is a gorgeous Conn New Wonder series II transitional alto saxophone in an extremely rare finish: burnished gold plate. The engraving is the art-deco style, heavily elaborated for the burnished finish. Only a few of these probably exist; I know of two of them and this is the only one I have overhauled myself. It turned out beautifully. It was a powerful player as you might expect from a Conn of this era, but it also had an incredibly cheerful and nimble alto sound that was unique in my experience with Conns. All it all, it is one of the best altos I have ever played- very hard to put down, and I was genuinely sad to see it go when I was done with it! What a fantastic horn.

My personal alto is a King Zephyr Special, and these horns have a special place in my heart. The craftsmanship is outstanding, the tone is unparalleled, and they are drop-dead gorgeous horns. They play much like a Super 20, but darker. I find the intonation to be particularly excellent, and the sort of zing to the tone that King aficianados seek out is present in abundance. Typically, King Zephyr Specials are in lacquer, rarely in silver, and only a very few of them were gold plated. I have been lucky enough that this is my second gold plated Zephyr Special to come through the shop, and I actually have a third one scheduled for later this year! I would not be surprised if there were less than a couple dozen of them ever made, but I don’t really have any idea.

I have finally overhauled my websites and combined them, and now all of my content lives here in a much simpler format. I prioritized ease of use, quick load times, and a simple design that was inspired by early internet. Still using Wordpress as a site builder, after a dalliance with a simpler but less user-friendly (as far as administration) format called Hugo. This website redesign is now pretty much complete as of this posting. There is even a new logo, adapted from the old Open Source Saxophone Project. Last thing to happen on the backend is migrating to a faster server in the next couple weeks. My website is so old it has been operating on actual hard drives vs. SSDs, and that will change.

The open source saxophone project ended up being mostly me doing it (although I had some fantastic help with the pivot screw stuff) and it seemed dumb and felt like extra work maintaining two different websites. So I have added everything that was once on the Open Source Saxophone Project to this website, under Sax Repair Info –> Articles and Info. They have their original publishing dates, so most of them are pretty far back (around 2015ish).

Well, when I was building a repair shop out of a 31 foot Airstream trailer, I have to admit I did not think of contrabass saxophones. I can comfortably work on everything up to baritone without any issues, and even basses are accounted for by moving my torch holder a foot to the right. Dentwork is possible thanks to a rotating and height adjustable vise stand with carefully considered placement. But the contrabass saxophone is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, weighs close to 50 pounds, and was a challenge to work on in the space. I could do regular work on my secondary bench, which is deep enough and long enough. But dentwork was a non-starter, not just because the metal on this instrument was incredibly thick and resilient, but because it literally wouldn’t fit in my work space.

Originally written in 2014. I still use basically this same toolset as my take-home tools, but I need to update this article. Working from home. Regular workshop (Airstream) visible out the window. Even though I work in a workshop about 50 feet from my front door, sometimes I work from a backup bench in my house- in inclement weather, or perhaps I am feeling lazy. I have an old toolbox where I keep my most-used tools, and over time I have honed it into a fairly complete set of what can get me through 90% or so of my work- once dentwork and cleaning has been taken care of, anyhow. In the event that you find it interesting to know, check through the photos below to see what my personal toolbox contains.

On the bench this week is an extremely rare original burnished gold plate Selmer Super Action tenor from 1953/54. Amazingly, this horn spent most of its life nearby to my shop in semi-rural North Carolina, being owned by a player in Hillsborough who had ties to a local music store here. This history makes sense, as it was both extensively played and well-cared for. It had a lot of miles, but it was loved.

First things first: I continue to be extremely lucky and am booked for the foreseeable future. I am not currently accepting new clients, and I will post a news item if that changes. Well gosh darn that was a hell of a year, or hundred years, or whatever that was. My wrist is mostly healed (still a few more months to go before my last follow-up) and functionality is quite acceptable, I am vaccinated, my kids are getting vaccinated in a few days, I’ve signed another long lease at my current home/workshop- it feels like a new chapter.

SOLD This saxophone (and another like it that I didn’t even have a chance to post to the site) sold in August of 2021. If you are interested in acquiring one like it, let me know. I enjoy putting good 6Ms into player’s hands. (Original description below) This is a ready to play 1933 Conn 6M Transitional alto saxophone in very clean original condition, with original lacquer (one of the first lacquer horns Conn sold!) at about 98%. This has been my personal horn recently, but unfortunately medical expenses mean I need to sell. I performed a full mechanical overhaul on this a few years ago with flat metal resonators, and I recently did a very thorough clean-oil-adjust, and it has been taken care of very well. It also comes with its original case in exceptionally fine condition- so nice you can definitely use the original case as your daily case for this horn- and also the original neckstrap and Conn pad measuring tool. It is a fantastic alto that plays with crisp and instant response and a warm, round tone that is ready to play for many years out of the case.

Yanagisawa 990 with black lacquer and the sterling/gold plated neck. I spent a lot of time on minor but evenly distributed key fitting and adjustment material upgrades during this overhaul and I am especially pleased with the feel of the action. Absolutely quiet, snappy, light, obscenely quick and comfortable. A joy to play.

On the bench. 1967 Selmer Mark VI tenor, original lacquer, fresh overhaul done by me. I was about 80% through this when I shattered my wrist. Done! This was for a client who I first met in my early days in New York City about 15 years ago. I have had a few of those in a row recently, and it has been nice to reconnect.

March 5th, 2021- Just short of 6 weeks after my wrist surgery. I am a little slow, a little limited, but I am making a start. Been working my P.T. hard and nearly constantly.

I have been encouraged to move my wrist if I can, and I am taking that to heart. I learned to reface mouthpieces a long time ago, and I am dusting off the old memory banks and polishing up my skills, since most of it is done with the right hand.

In mid-January 2021, I sustained a crushing injury to my left wrist and badly shattered it. I got very lucky considering the nature of the accident that I was not injured much more severely, and I am happy to report that surgery went well (there was worry I would need a much more invasive surgery with a much longer recovery time involving a second surgery down the road but it went about as well as possible) and a near-full recovery of wrist motion and strength is expected by a year from injury date. I of course hope to beat that timeline, and will be working my physical therapy as hard as I am allowed.

Spent a while trying to track down a rattling noise on this 1937 Conn 10M overhaul I just completed and finally figured out it was the window in front of me! These are such fantastic horns. A shot of the keys and pad seats during the overhaul. I’ve started doing a bit more disassembly after padwork in my overhauls- to make other things more accessible, to trim adjustment materials to perfection, to get difficult key groups done while I am fresh in the AM, etc- and I am enjoying what I am learning as a result. It is also nice to tetris the last chunk of an overhaul by simply adding oil and assembling since the padwork and adjustment materials are already done.

It is November 2020, and I am back to saxophone repair after a year-long sabbatical with a renewed passion. I was lucky to have the time away so I could see how truly lucky I am to have this job. Contact me to schedule an overhaul, which is mostly what I am doing these days since shipping costs make less-than-overhaul work less feasible for folks who aren’t local. Update January 2026: This website has been rebuilt! All content from opensourcesaxophoneproject.com has been merged here, and we’ve moved to a new foundation that is not WordPress.

Howdy! It has been a while. I am still here, still working full time+ on basically only the best saxophones for super awesome people, and still booked solid. I’ve been busy at work but also busy with life: I’ve traveled a few times, fixed a couple of cars, fixed up an old tractor I found, created a community garden on my land, and cleared a lot of old overgrown pasture with the aforementioned tractor. And all the while raising my two kids half the time- and its been an absolute blast. But I have let the website languish in the meantime, and that is something that needs corrected soon.

This horn came to me after having lived as a wall decoration for several decades. It was completely rusted and seized up in a way that I have only seen in other saxes that were exposed to the weather or submerged at one point. The kicker was it had original pads in it, so it was pristine when it got hung up- and in the before pictures, you can see a lot of the original lacquer, though so damaged by corrosion and exposure your hands would come away brown when handling it.