What exactly is an F.X. Hüller Standard?
I was looking through Flickr at some saxophone pics the other day, and happened across an unusual sight: A tenor saxophone that appears to have been made by F.X. Hüller, yet has some peculiarities that leads one to ask: Is it a stencil? Or is it a model that we haven’t seen before?
The horn in question is an F.X. Hüller tenor with the bell engraved Standard.
Common sense would lead one to believe that Standard is simply the model name. However, F.X. Hüller didn’t make a “Standard” model.
All the research that I have done to date indicates that the company only made five models. In order of least to most expensive these models were the: Professional, Champion, World, World Super, and the World De Luxe.1
If Standard was not a model name, was it a stencil? Sure there are things like American Standard (King), Standard Artists (Martin), and Buescher stencilled a sax for E.K. Blessing in a Standard model as well. However, in the latter case, the Blessing name appeared on the bell as well.
Does anyone know of a stencil horn with only Standard engraved on it any nothing else? If you do, please chime in below with a comment.
Model or stencil, in order to confirm that this horn was indeed made by F.X. Hüller, we need to take a look at the features it has and compare/contrast it to known Hüller horns.
How to ID an F.X. Hüller saxophone
Jos has done a great job researching the F.X. Hüller brand, and breaking them down into their different periods of production. He has also identified many stencil names that originated in the F.X. Hüller workshops. All his pages are richly illustrated with photos of some of the most lovely saxophones that Hüller built, and numerous catalogues from the 20s and 30s.
When I compare the following photos to everything that Jos has researched, what we are left with are some conclusions noted below the pics themselves….
- Based on the horn’s serial # (24083), this Standard tenor is circa 1939, thus would fall into the 3rd period of F.X. Hüller’s saxophone production.
- Comparing it to the four models—Champion, World, World Super, and the World De Luxe—that the company produced at the time, this Standard’s features line up most closely with the Champion.
- That said, it doesn’t really line up with the Champion either.
- The Champion is supposed to have/not have: a microtuner, a smaller left pinkie cluster, no front F key, no extra trill keys, and what Jos called “second type body-to-bell brace“.
- This tenor does have the smaller left pinkie cluster (compared to say this, which is what the World had), is lacking the front F, and has no extra trill keys like G# or C/D.
- However, what it doesn’t have, that the Champion models had, include: a microtuner, a bis Bb, and a chromatic F#. The bell to body brace is not the second type, but instead a straight one.
F.X. Hüller Standard: model or stencil, we are left to postulate
Since F.X. Hüller didn’t engrave their name on their horns, only the model names, we really have no idea if this Standard was ordered by some company with that particular engraving—which would make sense—or if this just happens to be some model that has been hiding in an attic for years, waiting to be re-discovered when its owner died.
We do know that F.X. Hüller did provided stencils to companies like Hammerschmidt, Oskar Oehler and G. Rudolf Uebel, as well as wholesalers such as Hess, C.A. Wunderlich, Johannes Adler and Paul Beuscher.2 Those stencil names ranged from the famous to the obscure and included: Klingson, Melody, Varsity, Girlanden, Benny Carter, Regent, ROA (Robert Oswald Adler), M.M. Masterhand, Queen, Magna, New Star, Gold Star, Zenit, as well Emperor Virtuose.
It has been suggested by a knowledgeable F.X. Hüller owner, that despite the fact that Professional models were discontinued by Phase 3, that this Standard is actually a stencil of their Professional model—and a transitional horn at that. However, if you compare the features that this Standard has to what the Professional model was supposed to have, this Standard still comes up short:
Late-model Professional features:
- 3 Ring microtuner
- No front F
- No extra trill keys
- Smaller left pinkie keys
- Second type bell-to-body brace
Denotes features on the Standard
Personally, I’m not seeing it. To me this doesn’t look like a transitional horn.
Alright, let’s just speculate wildly, shall we?
To me it looks like some company, somewhere, wanted an inexpensive, less complex saxophone, and they asked F.X. Hüller to build it for them. Yes, it was in during Phase 3 of the company’s saxophone development phase, but to me this horn looks like a horn that could have been ordered from almost anyone.
F.X. Hüller had some incredible innovations, and built some of Germany’s best saxophones during this period of time. Why would anyone have them build a sax that was so devoid of features? I wonder if whatever company ordered it, also ordered horns with more features—such as the copyrighted Menge System.
If you browse through German mail order catalogues from the time, it was very common to see no-name saxophones made by unknown manufacturers. For example, in the following 1939 Meinel & Herold catalogue there are a variety of saxophones shown, but no manufacturers listed; only model names. (Those on p. 25 don’t even show those.) Only the Solisten alto and tenor on p. 26 are easily identifiable as G.H. Hüller horns through their Mercedes-style key guards, and overall appearance and style.
It strikes me that this F.X. Hüller Standard tenor saxophone in question may well have originated through one of these mail order businesses, and that whatever company ordered it, very likely may have ordered a more expensive model as well.
In conclusion then
Whatever the origins of this F.X. Hüller Standard tenor saxophone, Sven has an interesting horn there. In his email to me he mentioned that his sax instructor is impressed by the instrument’s sound and build. This is not surprising, because from everything I have ever read about the brand, F.X. Hüller made some Graslitz’s best horns.
I want to thank Sven for sharing the photos of his horn, and allowing me to use them in this article.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 This is confirmed by multiple sources including:
German saxophonist and saxophone historian Uwe Ladwig in his book: Saxophone: Ein Kompendium, 2nd edition, p. 120.
Günter Dullat, German specialist author on saxophones, in his book: Faszination Saxophon: Der Saxophonbau auf deutschprachigem Gebiet, 1st edition 2016, pp. 175-183. This book was part of the special exhibition held by the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Markneukirchen, which featured over 100 saxophones that were made in Germany and German-speaking regions.
2 Source: fxhuller.com
