[milandro]

I have a tenor Buescher aristocrat (I believe) stencil with SN 36XXXX with engraving Wm Franck & co made in U.s.a.....not bad at all as a tenor, is there anybody with info on these stencils?

 

[steakboy]

wow...weird coincidence. i'd never heard of frank & co., until running across the ad (linked below) on sf bay area craigslist just 10 minutes ago:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/459291899.html

it's not a great picture in that posting, but even still, it gives off a buescher vibe to my non-expert eyes.

is yours like this one?

 

[EastCoastGhost]

It was a music store in chiacgo i bought one of these and sold it to my tech for what i paid seemed like an OK horn and it was really cheap

 

[Tharruff]

I have a 1920's silver plated 'William Frank' Alto that is a Martin stencil as evidenced by the beveled tone holes. It is actually the first Sax that my parents bought for me and it cost $ 65 in 1972.

 

[milandro]

Well, it is a crazy thing this mysterious world of the Stencils, there must have been hundreds of brandnames in the heydays of saxophone!
The picture on Craiglist looks like my horn (it is too small to see any detail though) although I believe mine is more likely to be 1960 or thereabouts.
I think the value in Holland would be somewhere between 500 and 750 euro

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Mine was $150 bucks off ebay needed a little tweaking my repair guy is happy with it

 

[chulie]

I recently bought an alto marked William Frank Co USA in poor condition. It clearly was an Elk-Hart by Buescher stencil, with the simplified art-deco keyguard and an Elk-Hart model- and serial number. Nice sound (sort of close to my Big B alto) but very thin body and weak key material. Sold it again but forgot to save some pics.. Could be a nice horn for someone on no budget but by no means worth to have it overhauled professionally, unless you find a mint one..