[NoahNY]

Greetings, Forum members! I have come into possession--well, actually it's for my dad--of a vintage tenor saxophone. The make on the horn is "Statler" and it bears a serial number of 4309. The previous owner said that his father, a professional musician, purchased the horn new in East Germany in the 1940s. Beyond that, he couldn't tell me much. Try as I might, I have not been able to find anything out about this sax. Though, I suppose it doesn't really matter since the horn sounds phenomenal! (I had the opportunity of trying it out side by side against a Mark VI and I really don't think this particular sax gave very much ground to this particular Mark VI.)

Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you would take a look at the attached photos and let me know what you think. I'm wondering if it's a stencil and if so, of what? It has rolled tone holes and the keywork on the bell is on the right-hand side.

Are there any other characteristics that I can look for that might be helpful? Are there any other pictures of other parts of the horn that I can upload that might be of assistance?

Thanks so much in advance for taking a look.

All best,
Noah

 

[xax]

looks pretty nice! is it bare brass? i'd like to see the neck and the left hand "pinky table" before i would speculate as to who was the manufacturer.

 

[bruce bailey]

One of my customers had an alto sent to him last week and the intonation was terrible but had a good sound. Correct on the East Germany mfg.

 

[playitfunky]

If it was made in 1940 then Germany would have still been a united Germany.

 

[abadcliche]

They weren't making too many saxes in Germany by that time though- besides being illegal, the brass was desperately needed elsewhere. The first poster says 1940s, so I'm thinking after the war.

Looks like an Amati to me, but more pictures will help. German horns from the 20s until the 50s or so all look very, very similar.

 

[Oldair2]

I have the same horn

but it is stenciled as an Orpheum - You can also look the thread directly below called Telecaster alto - I have one of those too. They were built by the same maker but who it was in the jumbled confusion leading up to - during - and after WWII is unclear. Some mix of Keilwerth - Kohlert - Amati - Dorfler/Jorka is suspected. I don't know if anyone can give a straight answer - I tried for a couple of years and gave up. The one thing sure is that the intonation is very good, the saxes are built very strong, the engraving is elaborate and they will surprise you if you get one that is in playing condition. I think Spiderjames has some experience with these too and some other folks who like to bottom fish the European stencils. If you do a search on Orpheum on the forum you can dig up some of my earlier efforts to find the maker. Let us know what you find out!!

 

[Oldair2]

Oh a couple more things

I sent all my pics to saxpics to try and get an answer but he was never able to tell me anything for sure either - if you google for saxpics and Orpheum I think the pictures are still out there but you can't seem to navigate to that spot from his website any more. Yes - here they are http://www.saxpics.com/the_gallery/misc/orpheum-mike_furbee/

Also - If you could post a picture of the neck - Mine has a brace that doesn't look quite like it is original even though the serial number is engraved to match the serial number of the body.

 

[xax]

From the little bit of detail that I can see in the pics, the Orpheum tenor neck looks somewhat like a 40s/50s Buffet neck.