The backstory is rather interesting
In 1999 A LOT was going on in the world. As we all sat around our computers wondering if the Y2K bug would wipe out everything on our home PCs, cause nuclear power plants to got into meltdown, or have planes falling from the sky, saxophone forums like SOTW were in their infancy.
I can’t remember how many members SOTW had at the time, but it wasn’t many—at least compared to today’s standards. In 1999 though, SOTW was already a year or two old, and Harri was developing a platform for a devout bunch of serious sax players and enthusiasts the world over, who for the first time ever, had an opportunity to talk with each other and exchange ideas.
Within a few years SOTW grew to be a very trend-setting influence in what saxophone players liked, and didn’t, when it came to everything from reeds and mouthpieces, to saxophones and electronic gear. One of the names that rocketed to superstardom on SOTW was B&S—specifically their post-reunification models like the Dave Guardala, Codera, and Medusa.
Even this vintage horn player was not immune to the siren call of the Medusa
B&S certainly had its dedicated devotees on SOTW, and those players sang the praises of their horns. B&S was so loved that it even got its own sub-forum within SOTW. It is interesting to note that that forum still sees a fair amount of activity to this day—but not nearly as much as it did in its heyday back when we worried about ATMs ceasing to function on 01.01.2000, and the 5 or so years after that.
I too was smitten by B&S. All that talk on SOTW got me curious enough to go to my local brick ‘n mortar music store and try one.
In late 2004/early 2005 (?) I bought a Medusa baritone as my first low A horn. I bought it shortly after B&S announced it would stop its saxophone production all together. Its growly nature was perfect for the R&B and blues bands I was working in at the time.
I so loved my Medusa bari that it inspired me to do a great deal of research about the brand—both pre & post Germany’s reunification. The results of those efforts are now some of the most popular pages on my website, and are divided into: pre-unification horns by B&S (VEB), and the post-unification horns by B&S (VMI).
New B&S print resources added to VMI pages
Since I first published these sections on B&S, I have routinely added content as I have come across it.
A couple of years ago a former music store owner in Oslo sent me some hardcopies of Medusa saxophone materials (1 & 2) he found in his attic. Recently this same fellow came across a number of other B&S materials that he thought I might find useful. Petter was kind enough to send me these brochures and pamphlets that date from 1992-1999.
I have turned them into .jpgs for ease of viewing, and uploaded them to the Vogtländische Musikinstrumentenfabrik GmbH Markneukirchen (VMI) section of Bassic Sax.
I hope these new materials prove useful to you as you look up information on your horn, or on a horn you are thinking of buying.
I will be posting one further document, but it illustrates Weltklang horns (VEB). Once that is done, I’ll write an article about it as well.
