Vintage Horn Reviews

At one time or another, I've owned multiple examples of just about every "vintage" horn you're likely to run into. I was in the vintage horn business from 1972 - 2005, and literally thousands of horns passed through my hands. Here's my thoughts on some of them:

CONN

Pre- Chu Berry horns: Make excellent lamps. If you're going to buy a C melody, only buy the straight neck variety. If you want anything besides a
C melody, save your money and buy a later edition.

Chu Berry Series: bad ergonomics, but nice sound.

6M: nice horn, serious over-supply. Don't pay too much.

10M: great tenor. Rolled hole models play the same as straight hole models. The last ones (nickel keys and underslung octave keys) are seriously underpriced.

26M and 30M: buy all you can. If you don't buy them, I will.

28M: best of the vintage altos. Don't worry about the plastic keyguard.

BUESCHER

True-Tones: buy them by the pound only. There are too many out there. They have no real redeeming value.

400: The Top Hat and Cane models are fabulous. Buy all you can find. The later 400's are undervalued.

Aristocrat: sweet players. The older ones seem to be a little better. Don't buy any made after 1960.

MARTIN

Committee II: one of my favorites. The ergonomics are not the absolute best, but the low end sound can't be beat. Don't buy any Martin made before this model.

The Martin: A real saxophone. Undervalued for sure. The baritones are the best of the vintage horns, even if they don't have a chromatic F# key.

KING

Zephyr: Don't buy the bari, but if you can live with the quirky intonation, the Zephyrs are a great sounding horn.

Super 20: they got better as this model evolved. I always like the later ones. The ergonomics are not the best, but that tone.......

BUFFET

Superdynaction: really undervalued.

S-1: buy all you can find before I beat you to them. One of the greatest designs of all time.

I'll deal with some other horns in a later edition. I plan to devote a seperate edition to vintage Selmers.