[Maboe]

Dear members,
I am trying to overhaul / restore a Dolnet. After some research I suspect that it is a series II. The serial number is 27581. I actually have a question about the colored accents on the key guards and the colored key inlays and whether this is a silver-plated or a nickel-plated saxophone.
The Low b and Bb guard is clearly nickel-plated, I have my doubts about the body, I wonder what material the colored accents are made of. Could it be Bakelite. A plastic that was apparently popular in the 1930s.
The inlays on my Dolnet are not all original and I want to get this back more or less to its original state. I just don't know if all keys were originally red / ruby. I think, for example, the pearl key E is original. The A, B and G key is not original in my opinion due to the poorly used dimensions. Is there a market to buy such original small parts. I would also like to find the original small screws of the guards, although these can be copied. Thank you in advance for watching this.

 

[Hassles]

you're also gonna want red leather pads to match those coloured key-guard accents. red was once the pad colour of some vintage Dolnet saxes.

 

[Maboe]

That would be nice. I have indeed already read something about Dolnet red pads on this forum. I do not know them or saw them yet, but I am not a real saxophone connoisseur yet. I wonder if they are still available?
What I want to know now is the original color order of the red key inlays. Which key had which color?
This is not clear from the photos that I viewed. I worked at a technical school where I can have new key inlays made if I can't get original ones.

 

[Tryptykon]

I have a tenor of this vintage - Ser. No. 25275 and needs an overhaul . The inlays on mine are clear .. not red .

Pretty sure mine is silver plating, as it responded to the brief bit of polishing I did w/ some tarnish remover .
Yours looks sort of like nickel plating but I'm no expert .. it may be silver, too .

I've got to get this tenor overhauled .. it's only been about 5 years since I bought it !

 

[milandro]

I don’t think there are any brands (maybe some Chinese ones) which produce real bright red pads ( there are some maroon or bordeaux ones) like the pads which originally were on Dolnets ( and perhaps some other instruments too), Grassi had bright green pads for example and they are absolutely impossible to replace.

Also another thing, for the purpose of absolute “ originality”, the original resonators were domed , seamless resonators.

I know of Nico Bodewes in Amsterdam who makes his own pads.

The red “ pearls” on the outside of the guards existed in black too and some red ones are very dark, those were made , I suspect, at the same time when Selmer fitted black plastic material (possibly bakelite or something else of that nature) on the Balanced Action because there was a shortage of mother of pearl.

 

[Bkenes]

I have one in my shop right now with dark red pearls.
I've also had one with red pearls with a white "whrilwind" inside the pearl. That one was really neat.
White pearl would probably be easiest to replace with.

Regarding red pads...coloring pads tend to make them get sticky. You don't want to got there...
Regarding resonators. The early Dolnets that had red pearls came with only a rivet - at least all of the examples I've seen that has had original pads.
I have seen many original dolnet pads and none had domed resos.

 

[Enthusiast65]

Philippe at Urgences Musicales in Lamnay, France, has bought a massive stock of original red Dolnet pads. He's also an expert on all things Dolly. Also a great repairer.

 

[Bkenes]

Sorry but if he has the original stock from Dolnet wouldn't they be pretty much useless? I assume that most pads are at least 40-50 years old and doesn't have the same water resistance as new pads.
I bought a large NOS of pads that had mostly ferrees and hermes pads from 20-50 years ago. The oldest doesn't resist water as much as needed.They are useless. The newer works fine though.

 

[milandro]

Most old pads were not waterproof to start with and I suppose that any pad, after some time, will lose its waterproofing.

I am not sure that replacing all the pads on a old Dolnet with some new old stock pads will be worse (or better for that mater) than any new pad out there , but if OP is going to do it for absolute originality he may have his reasons for that.

The link to Mr. Philip Fachin above brings me to a site that wants me to sign with a captcha thing to log in ( I didn't)

This is his Facebook page (I don't do facebook) Philippe Fachin

 

[milandro]

this is from another thread but probably informative for those looking for a source of red pads for Dolnets

Just spoke with Mr Fachin. Great guy. He has red pads for Dolnet but not all dimensions. For the diameters he does not have, he is able to use specific pads along with an ink that does the trick. example: https://www.leboncoin.fr/instruments_de_musique/1868124361.htm/ this is a sax he did with red pads.

 

[Bkenes]

What resonators are those? Can't really see on that picture. Is it simply a rivet?

 

[milandro]

Dolnet with red pads did have metal resonators ( I expect those are too) , I too can’t see the ones on the pictures (that is the only picture showing pads in the ad) bu by memory they were either riveted metal resonatorst or metal domed and seamless, but I am sure they were metal.

 

[B Flat]

The three Dolnet tenors I’ve had, two had the original red leather pads with rivets only.
The one alto I had also had river only red pads.
The tenors in particular were all great players.
I regret selling the last one in particular as it was something else.

 

[milandro]

they must have been later than this (and some of the Belair too) since the one in the picture was made in the ’80 and by that time there were no horns with rivets only.

I come across Dolnets of all sizes very often, if I even come across a suitable horn B Flat, do you want me to offer it to you?

 

[B Flat]

they must have been later than this (and some of the Belair too) since the one in the picture was made in the '80 and by that time there were no horns with rivets only.

I come across Dolnets of all sizes very often, if I even come across a suitable horn B Flat, do you want me to offer it to you?

Thanks Andre, but with shipping costs etc, I feel it would be beyond my means.
However if a nice Dolnet Baritone should come your way, I might rethink this scenario.

 

[milandro]

I have to say that I come across those fairly regularly ( they were a lot cheaper before we started talking about them!), but in that case I would have some serious problems to ship it because anything longer than 100cm is officially not permissible to ship by post.nl ( at least not by a private citizen) and would require special shipping through an agent ( on a pallet or something).
The last baritone I shipped I had to do this through a shop (they seem to be able to by-pass the rules) and cased me so many headaches that I decided that baritones (unless destined to the NL) are beyond my scope.

 

[Bkenes]

Yes, most dolnets seem to only have rivets. But I think that they should have flat metal resos to be put to their full capacity. I'm curious to Mr Fachins choice of resonators on Dolnets...

 

[Bkenes]

B flat - I often come across different sizes of Dolnets just like André. I actually have a Dolnet baritone at this moment. Shipping to Austrailia works fine in my experience.