[milandro]

There are many but old references to these horns generally as a question about strange short range altos which someone even thought it was a F saxophone



If I had 1$ for every time I see one of those advertised (normally as attic finds) I’d be a wealthier man if not a rich one. SSO warning ( Saxophone Shaped object)

I used to email the people to tell them that they were mistaken and that whatever they thought it was a saxophone was an object, made in India, unplayable and that coudln’t be made to play, at best a copy of an High Pitch saxophone.

Often they bear the Stamp “ Boosey Bessons” ( there was a company called Besson but not Bessons) and are part of sets which include a pocket trumpet and a Alto Horn all with the same serial number!

Boosey
Bessons & Co
London W.C.
75983


Many other people warn potential buyers about these “ instruments”


this is the pocket “ trumpet”

Counterfeit Pockets



The saxophone version comes almost invariably in a carton case
and looks like this




Sometimes there are brass or nickel versions without any name but the shape is always the same.
Red thick pads (unless someone has had a go at repadding these things) are another giveaway, red, generally broken, bad plastic rollers another.

Why am I writing this (which I would put among the articles)?

Is because I really take pity on the people whom may think that they are buying a real ancient instrument, while they are buying a relatively new made piece of junk

 

[milandro]

AAAAAAnd predictably the “ SSO” advertised in the NL, the one shown just here above has sold !

YET another victim of the SSO ( Saxophone Shaped Object) is out there.

Hopefully is someone whom just wants a KITSCH simulacrum (something that looks like something else but isn’t) when there are tons and tons of real saxophones unwanted and unplayed sold for not much more that this.

Part of my decision to publish this thread was precisely to create a reference, possibly searchable on line , to protect those unwittingly buying this things.

 

[milandro]

Another victim is bidding on one of these Indian made SSO or SSS ( Saxophone Shaped Simulacrum), they even include a picture of the factory logo where it has been “ made” or the shop it was sold.

STAY well away!

 

[milandro]

they keep showing up

 

[milandro]

another one offered :soapbox:


:Rant:

 

[milandro]

and once again these appear on Ebay

this time is a Belgian seller! How can anybody believe this is not rubbish? (click 3 times to expand) and ask good money ( €225) for it? NO DENTS.....:Rant::soapbox:

Don’t you love the octave mechanism? It is not double but it doesn’t alternate between body octave and neck....I “ opens” ( well...) both!

https://www.ebay.nl/itm/Prachtige-A...fc47625af:g:pIIAAOSwBEVc-XV3&autorefresh=true

 

[KeithL]

Look at those massive pads! It's enough to give anyone pad envy. Selmer has the Hummingbird, Flamingo, and Dragonbird maybe this is the new Frigatebird model

 

[milandro]

these abominations are still sold to lots of people who have no idea at all

 

[milandro]

this is the only real destination for these

 

[JimD]

Wow, love those pads, and that octave mechanism is really revolutionary, you get to open both at the same time, assuming that the neck actually sits a bit lower. And the bell! fabulous. Somebody actually "designed" and manufactured these, they're so bizarre they're like cartoon saxophones. I almost want one. Maybe people do buy them as ornaments.

 

[milandro]

They keep on coming