It was a mere 10 days ago that I wrote an article ecstatically noting that after years of collecting and collating data on H. Couf saxophones that I got the Superba I & II alto pages done. At the time I mentioned it wouldn’t be another 5 years before I published the tenor pages, and guess what? It wasn’t! Yeah!
I am pleased to announce that yesterday I published the Superba I & II tenor pages on the Bassic Sax website. Like the Superba I & II altos, the tenors also each had 4 phases—all 8 of which are explored in full colour photos thanks to the help of some of my favourite vintage sax dealers, such as World Wide Sax, Get A Sax, and PM Woodwind.
A breakdown of the what’s covered in the Couf Superba tenor pages
Tenor Superba I and II saxophones are among the most common of H. Couf saxophones that we see coming up for sale in online auctions and on dealer sites. In numbers however, Superba I outnumber II by more than 3 to 1.
At the time of publication I had collected data from 79 Superba I, and 22 Superba II tenors. All this data is broken down into sections that include an overview, and separate pages for the Superba I and II.
It turns out both the Superba I and II have 4 distinct phases that can be identified by their various features. All 4 phases for each model are shown in colour photos with lots of notes and links to make it easy to identify other horns you might come across, or even have in your possession already.
What’s Next?
One thing that all this data collation has shown me is that there were some errors and omissions in the original, main H. Couf page. So here’s the workplan for the remainder of the summer:
Write up the Superba I & II bass saxophone page.Done Aug. 6- Update the Superba I & II soprano page.
- Completely redo the H. Couf main page so it resembles the new pages in navigation and style; update its contents; and add the new content I have.
- Get the Superba I & II baritone pages done. (That will be A LOT of work, and likely won’t be done until September.)
Love these H. Couf pages.
After reading your tenor page about 4-5 years ago, I went on hunt and bought a tenor Superba I, and love reading all the details from your site.
Thanks so much. Looking forwad to your updates.
Thanks so much Brian! The bass data is proving to be really interesting.
Quite frankly, I had no idea what I would find for any of these models until I started crunching the numbers. The bari is the one that interests me the most b/c that’s the horn that sent me down the Couf path to begin with.
That said, I now own 3 Coufs: Superba I bass, II bari, & II alto. One day I am hoping to still find a reasonably-priced JK soprano to complete my JK set. I wouldn’t mind a late-model Superba I, but I am leaning more towards a SX90–only b/c there are more of them, so they tend to pop for sale more.