{"id":33372,"date":"2012-08-19T10:50:50","date_gmt":"2012-08-19T18:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=33372"},"modified":"2024-06-02T09:52:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T16:52:10","slug":"my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2012\/my\/","title":{"rendered":"The Result Of My Latest G.A.S. Attack: The Hohner Alto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hohner<\/a>
Hohner President alto, Serial No. 114XX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I got my Hohner President alto earlier this week. I bought it from my SOTW buddy JayePDX, who owns 2nd ending vintage musical instruments<\/a>. Jaye regularly has some very interesting vintage saxophones for sale through his shop.<\/p>\n

For example, it’s not unusual to see Hohners, Oscar Adlers, and Max Keilwerth horns up for sale through Jaye’s store. Until a couple a weeks ago I was very well-behaved, but when I saw the Hohner alto he had, I couldn’t help myself. I had to give into temptation. It was literally the alto I had been looking for.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, I had bought a President alto before, but it was in need of an overhaul and some body work. However, since I haven’t heard a Hohner alto in person, and didn’t know what it would sound or play like, spending $1,000 on the restoration work seemed like a lot of money on an unknown.<\/p>\n

I decided instead that I would bide my time and wait until a really good one came up, that didn’t need much work, and that I could buy close to home.<\/p>\n

When I saw Jaye had a couple for sale, I jumped on the chance to buy one. I lucked out, and got a killer little horn.<\/p>\n

This two-tone alto is from 1962 (serial 114XX), and is for the most part in very good shape. It is missing its original end cap and round thumb screw that tightens the neck, but since I have a donor<\/em> horn as it were, that won’t be a problem.<\/p>\n

I’ll have my tech David<\/a> look after the slight crease in the neck for me. I’ve said it before, but you should see what David can do with straightening out the crumpled bells of French horns. This little crease will be nothing for him.<\/p>\n

It will also be interesting to see what the neck of my other alto will sound like with this horn. I know with my tenor, getting a second neck from David’s donor horn was amazing. The sound difference on the instrument is huge. Playing my tenor with the 2 different necks is like having 2 different saxophones. I’m curious if the differences will be as profound on this alto. Or perhaps it won’t sound good at all. Since my other alto is with David at the moment, I haven’t been able to try it out yet.<\/p>\n

This little alto can sing very nicely. It’s intonation is what I expected, and the compensation is similar to what I have to do on my Toneking.<\/p>\n

I haven’t yet played it against my main alto: a Conn 6M, so I can’t honestly compare the power and volume. Nor have I played it against my late-model Mark VI, which can be a real screamer when it needs to be.<\/p>\n

However, I have to agree with Kumar’s comments<\/a> about the build: the President does feel very small under the hands. The right palm keys especially, would be difficult to play if the player had large hands or fat fingers. Since my hands aren’t exactly tiny\u2014I’m 5′ 9″ tall\u2014I do find my right hand cramped. It will take me a while to get used to playing this little beastie.<\/p>\n

Although this alto didn’t come in its original case, my other alto (serial # 48XX) did. The case is indeed small, and could easily be mistaken for something other than an alto saxophone.<\/p>\n

Smallness aside, this is one tough little horn. It is built like a tank. There is no mistaking it for anything other than what it is: A high quality, German, professional model saxophone. Its core tone-centred sound, lets you know that what you’re hearing is a mid-century, German saxophone, quite possibly Keilwerth in origin.<\/p>\n

Once David has all the school horns out of his shop in September, I’m going to take this little sax in and get it tweaked to just the way I like my horns set up. Until then, I’m going to get more familiar with this horn, and see what exactly it can do compared to my other altos. I suspect Kumar might be correct, and that it doesn’t have the same power as a Mark VI, or even more modern horns.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

If you’d like to read more about Hohner President saxophones, check out the Hohner Page on my website.<\/a> There you will also find a serial number chart<\/a> for the President saxophones. If you’d like to read more about Max Keilwerth, the designer of these instruments, check out the page on my site<\/a> that describes what he did before he worked for Hohner.<\/p>\n

\n
…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I got my Hohner President alto earlier this week. I bought it from my SOTW buddy JayePDX, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[299],"tags":[625,68,591,151,675,673,644,136],"class_list":["post-33372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hohner-president","tag-alto-saxophone","tag-bassic-sax","tag-g-a-s","tag-german-saxophones","tag-hohner-president","tag-max-keilwerth","tag-photos","tag-vintage-sax-resources"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t