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Vintage Saxophone Prices on ebay

I don't know how I missed this thread until now... Oh, I know how it happened... I was inputting bassoon music into musescore to transcribe it into bari/bass parts as required... wow... that was quite a bit of work!!! I'm done that part of it now, and our first rehearsal of Music Man is next Monday.... Like I'm anywhere near ready. :emoji_stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

OK, getting back on point, re: low A horns... Since bari is my main horn, I desperately feel the need to chime in here. FWIW, although I do have a low A Medusa, and I do quite a bit of pit work, I actually don't use my low A horn for it. I use my low Bb Mark VI with the low A extension that my buddy Paul Coats from LA designed years ago. Why? B/C simply put, I prefer low Bb horns.

There have been only very rare occasions where the low A extension might not work in a bar--ie when a low A and Bb appear to0 close to each other to be able to remove and re-insert the extension in a timely fashion.

If a player wants to buy a low A horn, great. Good on him/her. Hell I did. But it is far from necessary. I am certainly not alone in my assessment of this.

I have received emails from session musicians who have written to tell me how happy they were to discover Paul's extension. They needed that 1 damn note on occasions, but loved their [usually Mark VI] bari that they've had forever. Replacing it with a low A bari didn't appeal to them at all, since none of the saxes they tried had exactly the same tone/feel/whatever that they were looking for, or were used to. The extension allowed them to keep the horn they loved, yet hit the low A during the sessions as necessary.

In any event, if you're looking for new-to-you bari, and you are looking at used horns, my first question is always: What kind of music do you play? Then I ask: What is your budget? Followed by: Try as many baris as you can. Try low Bb horns. Try low A horns. See which ones you prefer. If you like the low Bb variety, know that there is an option that will allow you to play the "A", even on the Bb bari.

Bottom line: There are a boat-load of very good to excellent vintage and even modern baris--don't forget JK offered the low Bb option until at least the early 00s on the SX90-- that are only keyed to low Bb. They deserve better than to be turned into lamps or umbrella holders. :emoji_v:
 
I e-mailed Quinn about that. It's definitely not a Buescher. It doesn't have beveled tone holes, so it's probably not a Martin. I think EA Couturier is probably the maker -- and, FWIW, they did have a similar serial number stamp to Buescher. Considering EAC's involvement with Holton and Lyon & Healy, you've got a rather extensive list of stencils you can thumb through. Additionally, sopraninos, sopranos, C melody tenors, baritones, and basses can be a little different from their alto and tenor counterparts, so I can see EAC dropping the beveled tone holes in favor of a different design.

I do agree on 1920s vintage, though.

Quinn mentioned that he thought the horn was European. I doubt it: the engraving looks very close to Buescher. Definitely doesn't look Italian or German to me. There are a billion French manufacturers, but ... nah. Looks too American. I don't mind entertaining other theories, tho!
 
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