Last October, a woman contacted me about an alto saxophone that she had owned since her school days. According to her email, the Ault Artist was a stencil of a Hohner President, and according to a very famous, vintage horn dealer (that I won’t ID here) the horn was pretty much worthless, because Hohner Presidents were not very good horns. :wtf:
Needless to say, I was intrigued on a number of levels. Firstly, I had never seen, or heard of, a Hohner stencil. And secondly, I believed that the dealer must have been smoking some pretty good BC Bud, to come up with a comment like he did about the Hohner Presidents not being good horns.
I asked the woman to send me some photos, so I could see for myself, just what we were really talking about. Sure enough, the Ault Artist alto in her possession is really a stencil of a Hohner President. Who would have thunk it? :scratch:
Source: allinwrist
Source: allinwrist
Based on the horn’s 12XXX serial number, the horn was built in 1963. Max Keilwerth was still alive and working for the company at the time, and had just made some design changes to the President.
The 12XXX’d Hohner Presidents were the ones that had the new bell to body brace (see photo above); left pinkie cluster; straight, instead of rolled tone holes; had lost the high D/D# trill key; and were all produced with a high F# key. This Ault Artist met all these criteria. It was indeed among the first of the new generation Hohner Presidents.
I wrote the woman back and informed her that yes, she did indeed have a Hohner President stencil saxophone, but no, it wasn’t worthless. Far from it in fact. I gave her a brief history of the horn, and pointed her to the appropriate links both on my site, and on Saxpics. This would allow her to find out what she had.
I also asked saxophone historian Pete Hales to chime with his estimation on the instrument’s value. I felt at least this way the woman could now make an informed decision about what to do with her horn, that had been sitting more or less untouched in a closet since she finished school.
Fast forward to today, and my SOTW buddy Jaye, has this same Ault Artist for sale on eBay through his shop, 2ndending.com. Jaye sold me my lovely Hohner President alto just last summer. I can tell you that if I hadn’t bought the one I did last year, this Ault Artist would no longer be on the market.
This is how Jaye describes this unique, little vintage horn:
Up for the taking today is a very cool and rare one. This is a Hohner President Alto Sax, with a stencil name. This is highly unusual in and of itself as it is the first stencil President I think anyone has ever seen. We keep a keen eye out for these horns, and certainly another stencil version of this sax has not appeared on eBay in the past 7 years at least.
Before proceeding please read our payment instructions under the “shipping and payments tab”, above. They are specific and must be adhered to. As of late we have had a few ‘winners’ who didn’t follow the requirements and the transaction was not completed. Bid with confidence, we are 100% feedbackers. YES, we have a return policy. YES, we gladly ship internationally.
Back to the horn here. It is engraved Ault Artist….still trying to figure that one out. But this horn is 100% a President, identical body, identical keywork, the Hohner man logo is on the body tube and G# keytouch. This is a straight tonehole version.
She has been given the typical 2ndending.com workup: chemically bathed, hand-polished, bad pads/corks/felts changed out, toneholes leveled, reassembled, lubed, and regulated into fantastic playing shape. About 66% of the pads are new, the rest are older but sealing fine. The body tube is plumb, there are no dents or significant dings, keywork and rollers are free and easy. Original lacquer is about 70% and there is a fair amount of spotting particularly on the back of the body tube. Some typical scratching here and there, nothing significant or unusual for a 40+ year old horn. There wasn’t much dentwork to do on this baby, she came in in good shape. Some small bare patches. There are some very small and minor dings here and there, but you really have to look for ’em. A couple of guardfeet hae been resoldered, but these were done well, they are not gloppy or messy.
Nickel plating on the keys is around 90%. A few of the keytouches have small brass patches, and some of the keys have very minor pitting. But they have been cleaned up quite nicely and all in all, the entire horn shows well. Not newish and sparkling, but very clean and looking pretty good.
And, of course, that Keilwerth tone…which is what makes these very special. Helen over at the Bassicsax blog has written pretty extensively about these horns, but suffice it to say her tone is very dark and wide, quite smoky. Lots of wide low and low-midrange overtones, but like all Keilwerth-designed horns she can punch quite a bit, too.
The quintessential sonic opposite of 95% of Altos made today, which tend to be bright and reedy. This is the Vintage Alto sound which disappeared a generation ago.
Great horn for Jazz, Blues, Latin, Stage Band, or Marching. Comfy ergos.
Comes with her original Hohner case….which is just damn cool, if not in particularly good aesthetic shape. Functionally, however, it works fine and is structurally still quite solid, and should be kept with the horn.
Source: allinwrist
Jaye’s a stand-up guy, and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending his shop as a source for good quality, vintage saxophones. If you’ve been looking for a Hohner President alto, then this is a really nice one for your consideration.
The auction for this Hohner-stencilled Ault Artist alto saxophone is scheduled to end on April 15. At the time of writing there are 3 bids on the sax. The high bid is $8.21. Needless to say, the reserve has not been met. The Buy It Now price is $649.00.
If you end up missing the auction, you can always check out Jaye’s shop. The horn is listed currently there for $675. BTW, even that is a good price given the work that went into the horn pre-sale. You’re getting a sax that’s ready to play.
Unlike a lot of junk you can buy on eBay for a lot more—and you don’t have a clue what you’re going to get—with this Ault Artist, you’re getting a solid, extremely well made, vintage German saxophone, that not only sounds good, has great intonation, and let’s face it, also looks pretty darn interesting.
Update June 2024: Over the years a couple more Ault Artist horns made by Hohner have popped up. They are now all in the Hohner Gallery in Bassic Sax Pix.
Update: Well this horn had a rather unfortunate story. It was originally sold through eBay, but the deal collapsed when the buyer didn’t follow through with the $649.00. Jaye ended up re-listing the horn, but last I heard he still had the horn on his site.