Hammerschmidt Saxophones & Musikhaus Hammerschmidt

    Hammerschmidt saxophone stencilled Hüttl DeLuxe model. Owned by Helen Kahlke.  

Over the past week I’ve been immersed in the world of vintage German saxophones, specifically those made by the Hammerschmidt company. I’ve been working on trying to write the Hammerschmidt Wiki pages for The Sax.info, and putting photos up on the Coppermine Picture Gallery. (BTW, at the time of my writing this, my Hammerschmidt Wiki pages are not yet finished. So depending on when you look at them, you’ll notice that there’s still much missing, but you’ll get the idea.)

The research I’ve done has been very interesting, & I’ve learned a lot. It’s a good thing German is my first language, because everything I’ve found about Hammerschmidt is in German!

The Hammerschmidt company is still very much in business. They are now headquartered in Wattens, Austria, and have a music store, as well as an on-line presence. Unfortunately, this e-commerce site really caters to local customers, and is therefore only in German. So if it’s been a few years since your high school German classes, this will give you a chance to brush up on your reading skills. 😀

Hammerschmidt no longer makes its own saxophones, which it used to sell under the name Klingsor, however it does still make clarinets. The Otmar Hammerschmidt clarinet website is very interesting, but again, is also only in German. A glance through their on-line catalogue shows something interesting related to saxophones too however.

Hammerschmidt is indeed still selling saxophones, but judging by the price, these are student model horns. The saxes are now sold under the name “Klingson”. Notice the subtle difference from the pro horns that they used to make: an “n” instead of an “r” at the end of the name. They sell curved sopranos, altos, & tenors only. The prices are 790€, 890€, & 990€ respectively ( $1,080, $1217, & $1354 US).

Furthermore, and if things weren’t confusing enough, the Musikhaus Hammerschmidt website itself only shows the alto and tenor Klingson saxophones, and lists them at 750€ & 840€. So apparently it is slightly cheaper to order these saxes through their retail store, than through the company headquarters. (Yes, the model numbers of the saxes are the same.)

No word anywhere, on any of the Hammerschmidt sites, where these new Klingson saxophones are made. My bet would be that these horns come from Asia somewhere. I could be wrong, but given the trend in saxophone production over the last few years, I rather doubt it.

Meanwhile, back in my little corner of the vintage sax world…

    Hammerschmidt alto, stencilled Genton. Source: eBay.com

Over the next few days I’m going to re-shoot the photos of my Hüttl, which is a stencil Hammerschmidt from bygone days, and try and get the rest of the content, including photos, up on the Wiki pages that I created. Wish me luck!