(Helen) This sax is a real head-scratcher. Whoever built it, it certainly wasn't Buescher—the same Buescher that made the True Tones, Aristocrats, et al.

Pete Hales and I have discussed this horn, and neither he or I really came up with any solid leads on this tenor's origins. Was it made for Buescher by someone? But who? Was there some other company out there using the Buescher name? You'd think by now a few more horns would have turned up. What's interesting is that this sax showed up in Germany. Whatever this sax is, it is certainly an oddball.

(Pete) The closest contender to who made this is probably Kohlert, but the horn has left side bell keys and such an extremely low serial number for Kohlert, that it's really easy to eliminate that as a possibility. It essentially has a characteristic of several makes/models, but some other characteristic says "nope."

If anyone out there has a suggestion, I'd like to hear about it! You can reach me at pete@thesax.info.

  • bell left side bell left side
  • left side left side
  • tonehole pad detail tonehole   pad detail
  • left pinkie cluster 2 left pinkie cluster 2
  • serial no. 5948 serial no. 5948
  • bow right side bow right side
  • mid section left side g sharp key mid section left side   g sharp key
  • left pinkie cluster 1 left pinkie cluster 1
  • buescher engraving buescher engraving
  • left sided bell keys left sided bell keys
  • right side right side