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... And now a word on student models ...

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
Well, a few words, actually.

First, I don't particularly care about student horns and I rarely do anything with them. I've made minor exceptions for that a couple of times, but student horns kinda bore me. That being said, Keilwerth has had some interesting things in their student lines.

Current student/intermediate horns include:
* The ST1100 soprano, which is probably all manufactured in Germany, but may be assembled by Amati.
* The Keilwerth SKY. These horns are made in Taiwan and aren't available in the US.
* The "Julius Keilwerth Edition." I'm not 100% sure where these horns are or were made. If I had to guess, I'd say they're made by Amati.

Discontinued student/intermediate horns include:
* The ST90 and EX90. saxpiece, from Sax-on-the-Web, has done a very good job of breaking down these horns.
* The Keilwerth Student Modelle, which was also marketed as the ST (i.e., not "ST90"). It also doesn't look very much like a Keilwerth-made horn. The folks on SOTW decided it's probably made by B&S.
* Probably the first "student model" is this, which is an obvious stencil of an Amati Classic Super.
 
A revisit.

Saxpiece comes up with the following list:

Model Made in
EX90 Germany
EX90 II Germany
EX90 III Parts made in Germany. Assembly and finishing by Amati in Czech Republic
ST 90 Germany
ST 90 II and III Parts made in Germany. Assembly and finishing by Amati in Czech Republic
ST 90 IV Taiwan (Jupiter)

That doesn't quite line up, even doing fast and loose research. So far, I've all the EX90 and EX90 IIs I've seen are stamped, "Made in Germany." The EX90 IIIs I've seen do look like a Keilwerth and aren't stamped anything, except for a very high serial number (320xxx). I can't really prove either way if these horns are "made" by Keilwerth and "finished" by Amati or if Keilwerth just sent some plans to Amati and said, "Build some horns for us."

As far as the ST90 is concerned, the first ST90 I looked at -- no numbers after it; just "ST90" -- was clearly stamped "ROC" and didn't look very much like a Keilwerth. However, I also saw some ST90 IVs with a really high serial number (420xxx) that looked more "Keilwerthy."

I think the best advice on the ST90s and EX90s is, "Look for a, 'Made in Germany,' stamp. That's a horn that's most likely fully made and assembled by Keilwerth." I see a lot of folks go back and forth on the quality of Amati made/assembled horns. It's not something I have had enough of a sample of to give any opinion. I can say that they look pretty nice.

I've also read in a couple places that the EX90 is a "little brother" to the SX90R. No, the SX90 is the "little brother" to the SX90R. The EX90 is an intermediate horn. Maybe call it a "step-brother" or something :D. I also found that there was an SX model. However, those are difficult to look for online (Googling "Keilwerth SX" will give you a bunch of SX90s and SX90Rs), so I don't know if that was available at the same time as the first SX90s/90Rs.
 
Looks like the KHS-made ST90s are just about the same as the 669-667:

http://worldwidesax.com/saxophones/jupiter-jas-669-667-eb-alto-408k/
http://www.soundfuga.jp/SHOP/s151025jas667_669_4025_1025.html

... and an ST90: http://worldwidesax.com/archived/keilwerth-st-90-bb-tenor-8701xx/

The bell-to-body brace is pretty distinctive. I did also mention "just about," above: the right hand pinky keys are different. There may be other differences, too. I also think that another Taiwanese company may have made some of the ST90s. I'm looking, but not incredibly hard: these were all student models.
 
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The ST90 ROC horn is actually, tone-wise a pretty nice horn. Mechanically, for the tech though, it's "okay" but for the player it's pretty nice while also being sturdy and durable. No high F#. I have this one sitting on the shelf that I play tested and bought for one of my son's when he started band at least 6 years ago (that's back when they required sax players to start on clarinet then later sax .. they stopped doing that .. just an utter travesty). SN 956615. At one time you could date this by the"ROC" stamp of when Taiwan used it and when they stopped using it, but that info is long gone from my brain.

Here's a quick few cell phone pictures:
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