How to tell a C-melody from a Tenor

This thread got my seriously thinking about the topic, and I did a bunch of research. I just published an article in the blog portion of my website today that illustrates the differences between all the major brands of vintage, American horns. Enjoy...
 
AES C tenor

Helen said:
Often you can tell by the shape of the neck. The Conn straight neck is a dead give away... Duh...

When it comes to tenors, let me grab my C mel Handcraft off the wall, and my similar era tenor out of its case. I'll photograph side by side for you. The necks in some brands have a squatter look to them on the C mel models.

Now to totally confuse things, take a look at these 2 horns. The larger one is my Series III Toneking from 1957, while the other is a C-pitched tenor that I didn't buy when I had the chance (idiot probably) that Adolphe Edouard Sax built.

The C pitched tenor is currently getting restored at my tech's shop. Once it's done I will be recording a video with it, and then... Who knows... I might buy it yet... Or it will continue to sit in its case in Vancouver with a non-sax player. Or he'll decide to sell it for way more money than I'm willing to pay...

Right-Side-Compared-To-Teno.jpg


Left-Side-Compared-To-Tenor.jpg
Click to expand...

OMG, that Adolphe Edouard Sax C is beautiful. I've always loved the AES keyguards.
 
Helen said:
This thread got my seriously thinking about the topic, and I did a bunch of research. I just published an article in the blog portion of my website today that illustrates the differences between all the major brands of vintage, American horns. Enjoy...
Click to expand...


Thank you Helen for that great article and all of your hard work putting all that information together. You have done the sax world a great service.
 
You're quite welcome.

I have a part 2 coming. It involves caliper measurements of the tenons and neck pip openings of the C melodies vis a vie the tenors. I would like to get my hands on a New Wonder alto for comparison/contrast with my straight-neck Conn though. An acquaintance of mine owns an alto, so it's a matter of meeting up with him and getting to photograph the neck.
 
What I like is that you've said -- or heavily implied -- that the overall length of the horns differ quite a bit from make/model to make/model. That's something a lot of folks miss.

Wanna throw some HP horns in there, too? :D
 
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