[10mfan]

What are some of the rarest and unique musical items you have owned or had the opportunity to try over the years???


I’ll start it off with:

I have a box of actual OTTO LINK made reeds.
Only ones I’ve ever seen.
I’ve got to find these as they are here in the house somewhere, so I can take a picture for you guys.

 

[AddictedToSax]

I found an unusual hand carved ocarina at a garage sale. It has two openings and two bores. It doesn't play because the whistle part is chipped. If I find a picture I'll attach it later. I bought it because I like the intricate carving.

Edit- here it is.

 

[10mfan]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

That looks very cool. Beautiful etchings.
It's fun when you find things like that at a garage sale.

 

[B Flat]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

Mark, you revealed in another thread your notebook of Link facings.
I think that's a pretty cool piece of music history kit to have.

 

[10mfan]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

Hi,
Hope you are well. Yes, that's one of my rarest musical items for sure.
It's the only book that exists, so it's really neat.

I've had several things that are really unique, and I know other people have had some REALLY cool stuff too, so it would be great to see some pictures and talk about it.

The most unique mouthpiece I have here, which blew Theos mind, is a Meyer Bros medium chamber New York soprano.
It is NOT a New York USA, it's stamped Meyer Bros NEW YORK, and I've never seen another one.
Theo said, "It's as rare as hens teeth".
It's got that old heavy vintage hard rubber sulphur smell.
I'll post a picture.

 

[10mfan]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

Here it is:

 

[10mfan]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

Paul Cohen,
I see that you have looked at this post, so please add something, if you would.
You have some of the rarest horns out there!

We'd love to hear about a few of them, if you don't mind.

 

[10mfan]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

I'm still searching for the perfect reed that never dies and plays perfect forever. ???

 

[milandro]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

I found an unusual hand carved ocarina at a garage sale. It has two openings and two bores. It doesn't play because the whistle part is chipped. If I find a picture I'll attach it later. I bought it because I like the intricate carving.

Edit- here it is.

It is not an ocarina. ( ocarinas are made of clay or stone and have a hollow body generally oval shaped). It's a " double bourdon flute". See this https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flûte_multiple

What you have is a double flute from the the Balkans , a very common thing to find among tourist's buys in Europe.

It's really a souvenir, nothing else. I find them regularly at thrift shops, where I have found Kavals and Neys too. All bought by tourists while on holiday. They don't even have to play to be bought.

https://omeka1.grinnell.edu/MusicalInstruments/items/show/455

The rarest that I 've ever played must be the straight buescher alto that I've played at Matthew's in the NL recently.

 

[Sigmund451]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

Here it is:

For those who dont know, the Meyer bros blanks were not made in the US. They were French made blanks purchased by Meyer Bros. I presume they had their own cores and designs but they did not have the capability to mold and vulcanize rubber at the time.

 

[10mfan]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

It is not an ocarina. ( ocarinas are made of clay or stone and have a hollow body generally oval shaped). It's a " double bourdon flute". See this https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flûte_multiple

What you have is a double flute from the the Balkans , a very common thing to find among tourist's buys in Europe.

It's really a souvenir, nothing else. I find them regularly at thrift shops, where I have found Kavals and Neys too. All bought by tourists while on holiday. They don't even have to play to be bought.

https://omeka1.grinnell.edu/MusicalInstruments/items/show/455

The rarest that I 've ever played must be the straight buescher alto that I've played at Matthew's in the NL recently.

Great info.
How did the straight alto play???

 

[milandro]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

Great info.
How did the straight alto play???

https://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?364864-Buescher-Straight-alto-in-the-NL

I finally did get a chance to play this horn.

It is really very nice.I have played other straight altos with modern mechanics and one has the tendency to play this one close to the body but I thought that one would have to support it away from the body to have a good reach of the keys, especially the palm keys.

I am sure it is all in getting used to it.

It played nicely, warm and full, there was nothing of the cor anglais or cor anglé but yet there was a different sound than ordinary altos

 

[10mfan]

Re: The rarest and unique musical items you have owned or tried

Very cool....thanks.
I have yet to try a straight alto. It's on my list of things to try. A straight tenor too.

 

[whaler]

A Selmer England tenor mouthpiece I have. It’s the tenor version of Bird’s mouthpiece.

 

[10mfan]

Oh yes! I had two of those over the years. Very hard to find! Do you like the way it plays?
Is it around a 4* tip opening?

 

[saxtek]

Probably my Conn-O-Sax, but maybe my slide saxophone or mt Eppelsheim contrabass sax.

 

[10mfan]

Randy,
I was hoping you would come on! You have some of the coolest horns I’ve ever seen. Post a few pictures if you don’t mind. We need to do lunch one of these days. Let me know when you are up this way.

 

[Grumps]

A matching pair of soprano and sopranino Selmer Mark VI saxophones special ordered in 1972 with original black lacquer. Sold 'em a while back, but you should still be able to see them on the old saxpics site.

 

[10mfan]

VERY cool!
How did they play?

 

[pontius]

What are some of the rarest and unique musical items you have owned or had the opportunity to try over the years???

I'll start it off with:

I have a box of actual OTTO LINK made reeds.
Only ones I've ever seen.
I've got to find these as they are here in the house somewhere, so I can take a picture for you guys.

Not that I think this is necessarily valuable, but I have an oddball "Designed by Brilhart" Great Neck alto streamline piece with no bite plate. I love the way it plays.

You ever seen one of these before Mark?