Over the past couple of years I’ve noticed that a number of the vintage German saxophones for sale on eBay—those that still had all their original accessories—were being sold with a mute. I’ve noticed these mutes with Hohner Presidents, and IIRC, also with some of the Dörfler & Jörka stencil saxophones.
For the most part these mutes are found mostly in horn cases sold in Europe, which leads me to believe that perhaps this was an item that was included more with horns sold to European buyers. To some degree this would make sense, since living spaces have always been much more crowded in Europe than here in North America. Hey, it’s just a theory. 
However, those mutes did not look like the one that is currently on eBay. As a matter of fact, the device currently on eBay is not billed as a mute at all, but rather as a tone modulator.
Source: heidisaxo
Based upon the other items that this seller has up for sale, he appears to be a retiring tech. This is how he describes this interesting item:
HERE IS A VINTAGE ALTO SAX MUTE FROM ABOUT 1930 IT IS IN GREAT CONDITION AND THESE ARE GETTING HARDER TO FIND AS THE YEARS GO ON IN GOOD SHAPE LIKE THIS ONE NOTE in my ORIGINAL davitt and Hanser catalog from 1928 !!! they have this exact mute listed and pictured …. it was…. THE CROWN Saxophone ‘Tone Modulator ‘ and the description was as followed ..the add reads “””The only device to obtain a rich and mellow tone without affecting the blowing or intonation,Eliminates reedy and raspy tone effects. etc “”””…OK it might be snake oil, but IT TAMES THE SOUND OUTPUT a TAD , AND IS A GREAT THING TO COLLECT AND PUT WITH YOUR VINTAGE SILVER PLATED million dollar VINTAGE SAX,, AND of course EVERYONE has GOT TO HAVE ONE OF THESE JUST ONCE IN LIFE,,,,,MIGHT EVEN KEEP YOUR DOG FROM HOWLING !!!
OK, so not too many of us have a million dollar vintage sax, but some of us do have collections of weird and wonderful, vintage saxophone paraphernalia. If you do, then perhaps this little gem from the past might appeal to you.
Source: heidisaxo
If you think this vintage, Crown Saxophone Tone Modulator might look good in the bell of your vintage sax—no word on if it’s for an alto or tenor—then you only have a couple of days to get your bids in.
The auction for this tone modulator ends on August 14. Bids are to start at $40.00 At the time of writing there were no bids yet.
Update: Well it’s amazing what some perseverance will do. A number of re-lists later, and the seller finally found his buyer. The seller came close to realizing his original asking price of $40.
By auction’s end there were 3 bids on this vintage Crown mute. The winner took it home for $38.
From what I understand, the Crown mute was one of the more popular saxophone mutes. However it had the drawback of most saxophone “donut” mutes: a mute in the bell of any woodwind really only works for bell notes and it will also throw off the intonation on said notes.
There was another mute called a Sordino (which, IIRC, is Italian for “mute”) that was put in the neck of the horn. That does make a difference in volume, but has the effect of, well, making your horn difficult to play.
(The Sordino and Crown mutes are talked about by Prof. Paul Cohen in his “Vintage Saxophones Revisited” columns that were in The Saxophone Journal magazine.)
There are a couple of “electronic” mutes out that surround your entire saxophone in a “case,” but have an opening for your hands (Google “Cecilio ASAXP-W Sax Partner,” for instance). You have to wear earphones.
In my opinion, I’d probably want to just build a soundproof room, instead.
Oh. As far as I’m aware, the most expensive saxophone was Charlie Parker’s Grafton that was auctioned at Christie’s Auction House. It sold for around $100,000. The horn, itself (if you didn’t buy one that Parker played, that is), is worth in the $3K range — if it’s in good shape, rather than in a billion pieces.
For the record, I tried the Cecilio Sax Partner at NAMM 2010. It worked rather well, except that I was unable to reach the high E key even after adjusting the horn in the shell as much as possible, and it does interfere somewhat with the response of low B and Bb (though they give you a weird spiky rubber ball to stick in the bell to help with this, akin to putting a wine cork in the bell to stop a low C burble). This was with a Cecilio Pro alto (which was a respectable instrument in its own right), so they can’t exactly claim it was a weird horn they’d never heard of. Thus, some fiberglass work would be in order to bubble out the area over the high E — but otherwise, it performed as advertised. Basically it IS a small soundproof room just big enough for your horn, and it IS good enough for being able to practice without disturbing people in the next apartment (and probably not even the next room).
Interesting review Mal-2. Until you and Pete mentioned this Sax Partner from Cecilio, I hadn’t heard of it. I knew some other company (don’t know the name) had come up with some white contraption that accommodated an alto. I’m wondering if it’s the same thing? The one I’m thinking about has been around for a number of years. I’ll see if I can find a photo of it and upload it to another comment when I do.
I found what I was looking for. Long & McQuade has them for sale for $599 Cdn. for the alto version, and $699 Cdn. for the tenor one. Who knew?
Have you tried one of these Mal-2?
I have not tried the E-Sax enclosures, but I would have to imagine it’s at LEAST as good as the Cecilio knockoff version.
Yes, I came across references to Dr. Paul Cohen’s article in my research. Apparently the edition of the Saxophone Journal that that article was published in is now out of print.
I’m with you on the sound-proof room. That’s really the only way to go if you’re worried about your neighbours.
Here’s an interesting piece of Kahlke family trivia for you: When my parents built the house I’m now living in, they built it with a music room for me. You guessed it: It’s sound-proofed.
I was in high school and was playing 5 to 7 hours a day, plus was teaching beginning students. Then I went off to university, and when I came back during the summers I played 8+ hours a day. I would have driven my parents nuts! Even though both my mom and dad were both great supporters of my musical endeavors, they could only take so much of my playing. (Screechy high harmonics especially were grating on my mom’s ears.)
The music room is only 10′ X 10′. Back then I only had 3 horns, plus a soprano clarinet. Now, I use that room as an office, and I have converted the family room into my studio. It is really quite large in comparison. I’m not sure of its size, but I think it’s somewhere in the range of 12′ X 25′. And you know what? I still don’t have room for all my horns. Shocking but true. 😈
This afternoon I spent a couple of hours experimenting with some new settings for my effects pedal, and playing around with experimental jazz sounds. Even at mid-level, volume levels my Roland amp was causing my multi-phonics and altissimo, with their pedal-assisted harmonies and octaves, to vibrate all the metal in my studio. My contractor, who was working in the new sunroom off my studio, got quite the ear-full. I jokingly said to him: In 25 years or so, your son could sound just as bad! (His son is a beginning sax student.) At least Oscar will be able to build his son a sound-proof room for cheap! 😀