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Dumpster Diving For Saxophones

jbtsax

Distinguished Member
Distinguished Member
In 2008 I saw a for sale ad on SOTW for a Mark VI alto allegedly found by someone in a dumpster in New Jersey. The seller was asking for $1000 for the sax in a new case without a neck. Having more money than good sense at the time, I went for it. Subsequently I paid another $400 for a Mark VI alto neck that someone had engraved their name on the side. I have worked on the project off and on for the past 4 years. My wife and I refer to it affectionately as our "Dumpster Horn". A pictorial review can be found at this link:


Mark VI Dumpster Alto

Hopefully I will get it assembled in time to take to the NAPBIRT Saxophone University workshop July 16-20 conducted by Jeff Peterson of Yamaha to finish the overhaul under his supervision. It has been a real labor of love. Eventually body will have a bead blasted satin silver finish with polished silver accents, and polished silver keys done by Jeff Frasier of J & J woodwinds in Louisiana.
 
I always love seeing take-aparts.

Question, though: you've already spent $1400 on this. How much more do you think in terms of time, supplies and replating?
 
I always love seeing take-aparts.

Question, though: you've already spent $1400 on this. How much more do you think in terms of time, supplies and replating?
The bead blasting and silver plating will run about $450 since I am doing all of the prep myself. The roo pads will be about $60. The time I have spent and will spend on it---priceless.
 
You' ve done an amazing job!
I love the slideshow gallery - fascinating progression :emoji_astonished:
 
I've added a few more pictures to the slideshow of the saxophone assembled and ready to take to the NAPBIRT workshop as I had hoped. As you can see the tarnish effect has begun to darken the brass finish already. I confess that I developed a real animosity toward a certain "Wendy Biggs" as I worked hour upon hour to remove her name which was engraved on the side of the neck. Perhaps I should be grateful that her indescretion enabled me to purchase an original Mark VI neck for under $600.

FinishedSaxassembled001.jpg


I will add more information after the workshop before I send it to Doc Frazier to do his beadblasing and plating magic to the project.
 
Stupid, perhaps, but...

...her property at the time and her right to do with it what she would.

I'd never personalize a horn like that, but I'm the guy who doesn't even like engraving on a saxophone, so what do I know?
 
Very nice! What did you use to remove the engraving on the neck? I have a Martin bari with some misspelled words (and some not very nice words) scratched into the body tube that I would like to remove.
 
But all you good gentlemen have forgotten the most important question: Was it a 5 digit horn? :)
 
But all you good gentlemen have forgotten the most important question: Was it a 5 digit horn? :)
I don't know about the others, but the one in my post definitely has five digits in the serial number... in fact it's so good that it has a few more!

Looks like it was used for hockey practice. It's rather pucked.
It's not sure, but seems that the owner did this to his own saxophone in some sort of angry attack (if I remember right). He brought it to my friend to estimate repairs, but once he got into cost, the owner decided to just leave it there and seemed happy to never see it again.
 
But all you good gentlemen have forgotten the most important question: Was it a 5 digit horn? :)

When I sent an email to the SOTW member selling "the dumpster horn" I asked him if it was a "relacq". When he realized I was joking we both had a good laugh.

I am writing this from the NAPBIRT headquarters in Normal, Illinois where the repair workshop ended yesterday. I have a late flight so they have allowed me to continue working on my sax in the shop one more day. Each of the six members of the class just finished repadding the lower stack of the sax they brought after 4 days of work and study which shows how much detail was covered. The course taught by Jeff Peterson of Yamaha was well worth the $700 tuition and travel expenses.
 
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