dopaic.blogg.se - King super 20 alto saxophone silver finish

KING SUPER 20 ALTO SAXOPHONE SILVER FINISH SERIAL

It became the company's first successful model when it was adopted by Al Pinard, then a famous trombone player. White designed a trombone for Thomas King, a local player.

White Company" in 1893 by Henderson White, an engraver and instrument repairman.

Finish – Silver plated with a silver bell and crookĪn excellent description of a Hawkes & Son XX Century tenor can be read on shwoodwind‘s site.ĭo you own high C instruments? Am I wrong to avoid them? Have you ever played one live? Let me know by commenting on this article.The company was founded as the "H.N.

Place of Manufacture – Edgeware, London, UK.

The existence of well-made instruments in London in the 1930s suggests that some of them remained behind perhaps. Conn for instance persuaded French makers based in London to move to Elkhart, Indiana to work for his company. Saxophone making was a specialist craft and the in early years many of the makers travelled the globe. Hopefully it has now formed part of collection of a non-player, because it is excellently well manufactured. Having the disappointment of acquiring an unusable instrument I didn’t blow it. It also has a fascinating octave mechanism, which can be seen in the photos. It has an interesting ‘H’ decal on the side of the key protector to the low f# trill key. As I can find no reliable information on the dating of these instruments I’ve decided to date it as 1932 – just before Hawkes & Son ceased to exist.Īctually the horn was in surprisingly good condition (or perhaps not so surprising as no one could have played it in tune with any modern instrument).

The XX Century model was the main one made by the company up until the time it merged with Boosey to form the company Boosey and Hawkes in around 1934. Under this are the words ‘Hawkes & Son, makers, Denman street, Piccadilly Circus, London W, 58XXX’. The engraving on the bell says ‘XX Century’ above a picture of an eagle and globe. It is a silver plated brass alto, with a silver bell. Sell the instrument on its historical importance, but not on its playability. My advice to those selling them is to make sure the fact that it’s a ‘high C’ is listed right at the top of the advert. I’m not personally against owning ‘high C’ horns, but I’m not going to pay proper saxophone prices for them.

KING SUPER 20 ALTO SAXOPHONE SILVER FINISH SERIAL

Oh… and to avoid purchasing a high-pitched Hawkes look for the ‘#’ or ‘H’ (bad) and ‘b’ or ‘L’ (good) markings by the serial number. I had some trouble getting a refund for this sax, but took some photos, which I think are useful for those thinking of owning a Hawkes XX Century horn. If I had I might have been more tempted to keep it. Looking at the pictures now I realise that I completely failed to see that this horn had a solid silver bell and neck – like a King Silversonic. While pitch is possible to adjust for stringed instruments, it can’t be changed for brass and saxophones, where the length of the tube dictates the frequency of the notes.

Many instrument manufacturers from the nineteenth onwards made high and low pitched instruments. For those of you who don’t know, concert pitch was not always the standard 440Hz in is today. Although I collect saxophones, I’m really not interested in them if they’re unplayable with other musicians, which is true of all ‘high C’ instruments. I never took much interest in the instrument when it arrived, because it was immediately evidently that it was a ‘high C’ and unplayable in tune. I saw this in an eBay auction and put a bid on it. Hawkes and Son made saxophones in their factory in Edgeware near London. A Couple of years ago I was looking to add a good English saxophone to my collection.