It's a Buesher Super 400, Johnny Hodges played a Buesher similar to this one. That's him playing over the slide show below, first video I ever posted on Youtube. The pictures are form a trip I made to New York for the purpose of buying a saxophone (that sax was stollen in a burglary and it was in an attempt to deal with it that I took up Ashtanga).
I have my King super 20 Alto listed at the same time but am having second thoughts. This Sax came from a club in New Orleans. They'd painted it pink, drilled a couple of holes through the body and stuck it on the wall. It's one of thegreatest saxophones ever made and they had it on a wall! Took me forever to get all that pink paint off.
Here it is in it's pink state before I restored it.
Or perhaps I should sell my 1936 Conn Ladyface tenor... NEVER!
Surely not the Super 20 tenor, best tenor saxophone
I've ever blown
What about my King Super 20 Baritone, a beast of a horn that was rescued from the New Orleans floods. I spent a week cleaning this, in fact I think the picture of it was taken in the bath. Hardly seems right to sell it.
That leaves the Grafton, the rare white acrylic saxophone that was an absolute nightmare to restore. Still waiting for a replacement guard. I'd always figured on putting it in pride of place if I ever opened my own Repair shop.
But which to sell, it's heartbreaking. If anyone makes a crack about non attachment.......
17 comments:
Lol. I would never dream of making a comment about non attachment. Haha. But, wow, you've got quite a collection of saxophones on your hands. Impressive.
Good luck deciding ...
Those are beautiful instruments, Grimmly! I can see why you would struggle to part with any of them.
Your work on the King Super is particularly impressive. I can't imagine removing all of that paint!
When I was younger, I apprenticed in instrument repair. I remember saxophones being amongst the most challenging instruments to work with, particularly tricky for dentwork.
Perhaps another way will open up and you won't need to sell them. I hope so!
Maybe you could consider it as a sort of karma: by selling something really special, you are allowing somebody else to share something that you have loved?
I know it sounds crazy to compare the two but I had to give up my cats last year and they were both such beautiful & lovely animals, the only way I dealt with it was by telling myself that it would be selfish to keep them all to myself (when I was horribly allergic to them!). This probably doesn't help, but it's just a thought...
Wonderful that you are doing the YTT by the way, I didn't congratulate you yet - but dare I ask (somebody else no doubt already did) is it with a view to teaching, or 'just' to deepen your practice?
Thanks L, so hard. Can't seem to cancel the ebay listing so have upped the price so nobody will bid. Cant bare to sell it, will have to be one of the others, lets face it I don't NEED seven saxophones under my bed.
You were a repairer Kai : )
Yep, dents can be tricky, hard work too sometimes, glad I'm woodwind and not brass, some of those tuba's get pretty beat up. I imagine you were or are a player, which instrument?
That paint was awful, a kind of acrylic paint, tried everything to get it off, they even painted over the mouthpiece.
Funny you say that Mel, the Sax i lost in the burglary was worth several thousand quid, the guy sold it for two hundred and fifty in Portobello Market. Though I wanted to add some dents to him I always figured that somebody somewhere must have been really happy to be able to buy it. One day it'll come into my shop. Sorry you had to give up your cats.
...feel awkward saying I'm doing it to 'deepen my practice' but I guess that's kind of it. Certainly not to teach, though perhaps one day I'll fish it out if I haven't lost it by then. The course sounds great and it's such a privilege to have the opportunity to study with him given that he studied with Krishnamacharya over such a long period and not just asana. I love his books and how he discusses yoga. I'm hoping to come away with a much clearer idea of what it is I'm doing everyday and where i want to take my practice. I guess that's worth a sax or two.......but which ones?????
Just no. them 1-6 and throw a dice - easy!!
If it were me, I'd probably try to figure out which I played least often and sell that one. Good luck Grim!
Thing is I haven't really been playing for the last couple of years and they've just been sitting under the bed. It's only because i tested the one I put on ebay again that I started to get back into it.
They're kind of like your children, especially the condition most of these were in and having spent so long restoring them, a little hard to let them go.
I think I'll pass on the Luke Rhinehart approach and go with a variation of Boodie's, work out which ones I'm least likely to play.
the baritone....no wait....
Oh shit! Now this is reminding me of the Simpsons episode where Apu's wife is having trouble conceiving and then everyone starts lacing her food & stuff with fertility drugs & she gives birth to eight children, which they then sell to the circus.
Ooooh that was a tangent. And I don't think you want to sell to clowns necessarily, as clowns can be evil...
I played tuba! I was one of the people *putting* the dents in the tubas as well as removing them! I could play most brass instruments, though, including trumpet.
I once restored an old trumpet that was destined to become a lamp (the horrors!). I played it in a concert band all through university and I still have it, tucked away in my coat closet.
So much for non-attachment, eh? :-D
hi Grimmly
hmmm, attachments. have 'em. when i look at how much stuff i can accumulate in one year in a different country. Beautiful saxs. but if you need the money, then maybe you could put the name of each one in a list, then list the plus and minus features of each one and the one with most minuses would be the one that you would sell. ouch! it's cold, but if you hafta. how similar to what happens in life to people. a more positive way to look at is to keep the one with the most pluses in features.
cheers,
Arturo
Don't sell the Buesher.
hi Arturo, good idea except they all have their plus and minus points and each has a certain charm. Still it's the only way.
The Buescher is safe LI, do you know Buescher's or just like the picture of it? Such a sweet sounding sax. That and the tenor will definitely stay as they're my main playing horns. The Conn too, feel less attached to the others. Will tweak the bari and put it on ebay this weekend.
sell the one you would not like to sell at all
When I was in school we had a fairly large classical saxophone department. Several of the guys had Bueschers and all the Selmer-owners panted after those Bueschers all the time. It's not like they still make them.
GABI !!!, the time may come when i'll head off with a straw mat, a bowl and an ipad but for now I'm comfortable with my few attachments.
I heard that classical players like them LI, they do have a sweet sound. I've always tended to play tenor, never really got on with alto's but this one has got me wanting to play again.
I think it would be wonderful if you start playing again. If I understand right, you stopped playing when you got burglarized...? And then you started yoga to deal with the stress of the burglary...? Wouldn't it be something if yoga led you back to playing, via trying to part with some your sax's *on purpose* (instead of having them stolen) to pay for more yoga... it's a tangled path, but somehow it has symmetry.
Makes it all very tidy, Maya. Nice to be playing again. Played for a couple of hours last night till my lips were numb and I couldn't blow anymore, out of practice. telling myself it's good for pranayama. So glad i didn't sell the Buescher, such a pretty sax.
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