sax in B ???

[starfluf]

hey, an uncle of a friend of mine gave me this old silver sax he had in his cellar. We cleaned it up and had the dent pulled out of the crook etc. It was smaller than my tenor so i pressumed it to be a C melody. However when i took my tenor and this sax to Woods he got out a C melody and found it to be smaller than this sax - does that mean it's in B ?? has any one ever heard of that?? The mechanism is quite basic. I've forgotten what is engraved on the bell - some thing like "invicta"

Sarah.

[cmelodysax]

Sarah, more likely that this Invicta could be an old High Pitch Tenor Sax, which would make it smaller than a standard 'LP' tenor, but bigger than any C-Mels. Pretty unusable (with other instruments) if it is.

Look on the back, under the thumbhook, any info there ? L or H, C or T ?
A normal C-Mel body is about about 24" long without the neck, what size is the Invicta ?

Regards, Alan.

[starfluf]

ahh, never heard of one of them before! i'll have a look at it tomorrow when i get home and put details on here. sarah

[Wade2]

There were also academy saxes keyed from C1 to C3 with no palm keys. These would be smaller than a tenor and larger than an Alto.

Or it could be an F Mezzo-Soprano (Mezzo-Alto).

Play a fingered C and use a tuner in concert pitch and tuning set to A=440 to see what comes out. If it comes out Eb it is an Alto, F is a Mezzo-Alto, C is a C-Melody (C-Tenor), Bb is a Bb-Tenor. Anything else is a problem....

p.s. If it is a high pitch horn, set the tuner to A=452 to see if it plays better in tune with the tuner. If so, it is a high pitch horn and is basically useless for anything but solo work or work with keyboards that can change from the standard A=440 to A=whatever.

[cmelodysax]

....or great if playing with solo guitarists who always end up tuning 'sharp' - and then moan about a 'dead sound' when you hassle them back to A=440 !!

Wade (WW2) - or the C-Melody at 'Woods' (which was used for comparison) could have been High-Pitch, which could make this a Low-Pitch' C-Melody :wink: - Nah ! My money is on 'HP Tenor'.

Regards, Alan.

[starfluf]

aarrghhh!! so many different saxes! as i say, i'll check it out tonight (at uni at mo.... vacation starts tonight!) - the tuning and details etc. I'm not too bothered about it's usability (free is free after all!!) just wondered what it was. I initially though it was a tenor when i was given it (my friend just brought it into my house, case less covered in all kinda stuff. It wasn't till i put it along side my tenor that i noticed it was a good inch or so short! bizarre! anyhoo, i'll let ya know when i know...

[cmelodysax]

Sarah -

Aaah - "a good inch or so short......." It'll be a High Pitch tenor. Sorry for us all overwhelming you with details, as you can see, in the 'old days' there were a few more options than today - I don't remember them personally tho' !
:wink:

Regards, Alan.

[starfluf]

hey - i'm home so here are the details - ok...
on the bell it says " INVICTA Paul Cavour (i think) Paris model"
serial number is written between low E and D keys, number 7049.
Is 26 inches without crook. Hope to add a few photos. So what's the verdict?? :wink:

[Wade2]

My C-Melody measures 24" to the neck socket (without the neck installed). Since your's measures 26" it must be a Bb-Tenor. The only possibilities are High Pitch Tenor or possible Academy style keyed only to low C. :?

Pictures would help quite a bit with this problem!

good luck.

[cmelodysax]

Sarah - yes, it looks (hrmm- sounds) like a High-Pitch Tenor, if you measure your regular tenor again you'll find it is at least an inch longer. You've got a nice wall hanger there.

With the exception of the aux-front-F key, does the Invicta have the same number of 'pinkie' and palm keys as your regular tenor ? If it does, that'll rule out an "Academy style keyed only to low C" sax.

Regards, Alan.