Happy 100th Birthday to this.

[JfW]

I had almost forgotten and 2015 is coming to a close. I bought this horn a number of years back and sort of thought how cool it would be to have a Centenarian Saxophone.

I cant remember if I bought this for $300 or $400 from Junkdude. Anyway, here are some pics of the original www.Junkdude.com ad from which I bought it. I'll try to take some of my own a bit later, but it's the beginning of my time off work and I wanted to get this out of the way before going to sleep. It is my only bari and I thought I would share it will you all. Serial Number is 262XX



Hats off to our admins for making the upload so intuitive!

So this has, or will turn a hundred years old this year. On to 101!!!

 

[pete]

Hey, it's one of the few Bueschers with beveled tone holes, too. I don't think I've seen a Buescher bari with BTH before.

 

[TrueTone]

I think my name is enough to show that I'm jealous.
Unfortunately for me, I won't be in ownership of my Buescher in its' centenary year, as it's my school's.
Hopefully I'll find a tenor I like as much before I graduate.

 

[Helen]

Congrats on your baby reaching 100. My TT bass has a few more years to go before it hits 100. It was made in 1922. It's still going strong, and is my one and only bass. (The only voice of sax I can say that about.)

 

[pete]

But your E&S bari is older, right?

As far as Buescher basis are concerned, I'd love to try one of the "transitional" Custom Built series. I rather liked a gold-plated TT bari I tried out, once. Too bad that it didn't go to low A.

 

[TrueTone]

Well neither does the Custom Built.
I'd want to see how much they sold for with that.
I'd like to try one also, though I doubt I can unless either I find one locally or I find one that someone owns.
Anyone want to chime in on how different it is in a playing perspective from the standard 129?

 

[Helen]

But your E&S bari is older, right?

Yes by Evette & Schaeffer/Buffet is circa 1886 & in remarkable condition. If I can ever get the double octave key mechanism figured out well enough, it would be a fun horn to play.

I jammed playing it at the big show I put on with my jazz trio this past February this year to celebrate Adolphe Sax's 200th b-day because I figured I'd fall on my face due to the lack of automatic octave key. I'm just not fluid enough on it to play as convincingly on it as I do on more modern horns. The bari did go to the show though as one of the 2 "exhibit" horns.

In this photo you can see the neck and pig tail behind my Mark VI bari and in front of Buescher bass. Yes, there is a size difference between it and modern baris--mostly in part because it's a HP horn--made more noticeable here because it's sitting in a K&M tenor stand, since that's the only stand that will safely cradle the bell.

 

[pete]

You ~could~ have your repair tech convert it into an automatic mechanism. I have to say that I didn't really own my Couesnon bari (IIRC, 1908) long enough to really play with the dual-key system. At least, not long enough for me to get a good or bad impression.

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Yah, I know the Custom Built also goes down to only Bb. Doesn't mean I wouldn't like trying one!

 

[TrueTone]

I'd like to play one in a band if I liked it.
...why do composers love writing low As? It makes me outdated.

 

[pete]

Because they sound awesome. You also have to remember that A. Sax had some low A horns in his inventory, so it's not that new to have a low A. Hey, even if you say that the Selmer Super (Balanced) Action was the first low A bari produced, that's 1952.

I still remember the day that I sat down in the orchestra I played in. The trombonist had just bought a nice, shiny new bass trombone. Well, I had a shiny YBS-52 and I had just bought a Berg Larsen (rubber) mouthpiece. I think we were on more than equal terms for low-end volume.

FWIW, one of the reasons I wanted a low A is because I played a lot of classical music. Low A on a bari is concert C. I could play some cello parts as written. (Standard trick: transpose bass clef to Eb treble instrument. Add three sharps to the key signature and just change the clef. So, becomes and your key signature goes from C to A ... if I had actually installed the key signature smileys ...)