A recent thread on Sax On The Web had me discussing the newer, stencil Hohner saxophones. I say newer because I don’t know exactly when they were made, but they were certainly manufactured after the President models were. I use the word stencil because they meet the definition of one, which is:
…a stencil saxophone is a horn that was made by one of the major manufacturers for another company or perhaps a music store. The ordering company would then have their name engraved, or “stenciled”, on the saxophone, and then the horn was sold without any reference to the actual manufacturer.
Source: Stencil Saxophones: What are they?
Even only a quick glance at these newer, stencil Hohners will tell you that these horns in no way have any provenance with Max Keilwerth’s Hohner Presidents. These newer Hohners are Selmer knock-offs, and are most likely Asian in origin.
The Hohner President saxophones are arguably among the prettiest of the vintage saxophones. With their eyebrow key guards, these horns were instantly recognizable.
Max Keilwerth designed these horns in the late 1940s. Anyone who has played one of these fine vintage horns can tell you, they are an example of fine German craftsmanship. Although not without their quirks—like virtually all vintage horns—they are nonetheless wonderful to play when they are properly set up. They have a dark, heavy on the core tone, mid century saxophone sound, that German horns are known for.
These newer Hohner saxophones are an enigma however, and there do not appear to be a lot of them around. These horns pop up for sale used from time to time, on the German eBay site and in mainland Europe on online sales sites. Therefore, I can only assume that Hohner had some saxes stencilled for a year or two by an Asian company, and then focused the sales of these horns in Europe. However, this practice is apparently not currently ongoing, since the Hohner website does not currently list any saxophones for sale.
Of course another possibility is that some other, less than scrupulous company, used the Hohner name without permission and had some horns stencilled. Although not as likely, this might explain why these saxophones do not appear to have the Hohner logo on them.
No matter under what conditions these newer Hohners were ordered and sold under, they’re NOT Hohner Presidents.
Since 1857, Hohner Musikinstrumente has been renowned for making outstanding musical instruments. And while harmonicas and accordions might be what we stereotypically think of when the name Hohner is mentioned, the Hohner President sax is an example of how the company has at times gone into other areas of musical instrument production. BTW, the name President is not unique to saxophones. I have found references to an old electric guitar as well an accordion made by Hohner, which both carry the President name.
As long as buyers are going into a deal with their eyes wide open it’s OK. However, when a buyer unwittingly buys one of these cheaper, Asian horns, because they mistake it for a President, or are lead to believe it is a Max Keilwerth horn, that’s where I have concerns. Sure we can easily blame the buyer and say they should do their due diligence. However, when it comes to these more obscure brands, that’s not so easy to do.
Sometimes sellers spin a pretty good yarn—especially convincing to a buyer who might not have a great deal of experience. My hope is that this article will assist in the due diligence.
