Hi. I was looking at the prices of saxophones and back when I was playing the best were Selmer and Yamaha was great too. Amazon has several Selmer tenors starting in the lose $1000 range and I thought that low. Is there a counterfeit saxophone market?
Anyway, the reason I posted here is that I decided after seeing those saxes to look up any info I could find on my old sax I had in high school, a Martin Busine tenor, and stumbled upon this thread. I had that sax for high school marching and concert band from the late 70s and sold it in the mid 80s. No one was too sure about it back then either including a couple of my music teachers who played sax at local gigs on the side. People would say, I know what a Martin is, but a Martin Busine? It had a burgundy case and looked pretty good when I got it, so it probably was from the early 70s or late 60s at its oldest. That sax went all around the lower half of Florida (Bradenton - Maitland - Cape Coral) for football games and marching band contests as well as the Orange Bowl parade in 1979 and Macy's Day and Rose Bowl parades in 1980. So by the time I sold it, it was pretty wore out. The guy who bought it after I got out of college (didn't play it in college) said he was going to refurb it. I think I sold it for $75 in 1986 in Sarasota. I always liked the tone of the sax and it was a Caddy compared to the one I had prior that looked like it was from the 40s. That old sax had no lacquer and the key guards were just crossed lengths of metal vs the nice silver plates with the cut out designs of the M.B.. That older sax was so crappy, I can't even recall who made it, lol. But it was still cooler then the Bundy clarinet I had started with in elementary school, haha. Anyway, thought I would stop in and share. Wouldn't be surprised if that sax is still being played by someone, although the case when I sold it was just about dead.
