{"id":4029,"date":"2008-12-26T08:08:25","date_gmt":"2008-12-26T15:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=4029"},"modified":"2009-08-07T22:45:07","modified_gmt":"2009-08-08T05:45:07","slug":"pristine-looking-buescher-bass-on-ebay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2008\/pristine-looking-buescher-bass-on-ebay\/","title":{"rendered":"Pristine Looking Buescher Bass On eBay"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wichita Band Instrument Company, currently has a\u00a0vintage bass sax up for auction on eBay<\/a> that caught my eye. I first noticed this horn on\u00a0December 22nd. It is a very pretty Buescher bass, and somewhat unusual in a\u00a0couple of respects.<\/p>\n

Firstly, it is in\u00a0seemingly pristine condition\u2014something one hardly sees in these big behemoths. And secondly,\u00a0it lacks gold wash in the bell (most of the silver plated Buescher bass saxes I’ve seen all have had this feature).<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

This horn was originally listed for sale until December 28th, but\u00a0the sale\u00a0ended early on the 23rd. Now it’s been re-listed, and the auction is running until January 3rd.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

Here is how the Wichita Band Instrument Company describes the horn:<\/p>\n

RARE AND SUPERB SILVR PLATED BUESCHER BASS SAX, MADE IN ELKHART IN 1918, ALL ORIGINAL.<\/p>\n

Vintage saxes from Selmer, Conn, Buescher and King are usually in our collection in Wichita, but this one’s special. The original satin silver finish is worn less than one percent, it’s never sustained any serious dents, minor dings have been burnished out by us and it now wears all new pads and corks.<\/p>\n

Rare Buescher “True Tone” B-flat bass saxophone, #42,151, made in Elkhart in 1918.<\/p>\n

This one’s quite original, still has 99% of the original satin silver finish, bright silver inside the bell.<\/p>\n

ALL tone-holes have been removed and re-soldered, keywork has been swedged tight and all pads are new, from our shop in Wichita.<\/p>\n

Never any major dents, minor dings have been burnished out in our shop in Wichita.<\/p>\n

Case is new.<\/p>\n

Previously owned by a fellow who bought it more than 30 years ago, this one’s unusual because it’s never had any major dents or damage. Perhaps as fine a bass as you’d find anywhere.<\/p>\n

Our shop’s been in business since 1953, originally a woodwind and saxophone repair facility. We do seem to see one, sometimes two, basses every year. Of all that we’ve repaired, bought and sold, our opinion is that the American instruments from C. G. Conn and Buescher are far superior to all others. We have found homes for six or eight Selmer instruments and some folks do, we’ve got to admit, think they’re the finest basses ever built. But OUR choice is either a pre-1935 Conn or Buescher. The bell sections are bigger on them, which means the low B and B-flat speak without any resistance at all.<\/p>\n

Not certain what bass that Adrian Rollini used. Am certain the American-Danish virtuoso Sigurd Rascher used a Buescher. Haven’t spoken to Vince Giordano for quite a while, do think he’s now using a Conn. Somebody out there will know…<\/p>\n

Buescher was considered by many pre-war players to be the finest of the classical saxes, although only few jazzers ever used them. Aside from Rascher, I believe British “society” saxophonist Victor Sylvester also used a Buescher alto in his pre-1950 BBC radio broadcasts.<\/p>\n

My teacher and best friend for half a century, Richard G. Helt of Wichita also preferred Buescher altos. In his early days with the Gus Arnheim and Charlie Barnet bands, he used a Selmer Balanced Action. But in his mature years, after his return to Wichita, Dick told me he liked the flexibility of the early Bueschers. Dick used a Brilhart three-star when he played alto and I use an identical alto mouthpiece to this day.<\/p>\n

This particular gorgeous Buescher bass gets our 100% highest recommendation. It’s been used very little in the past 90 years, has never had any serious damage, comes with a new case and plays about as well as any bass ever made. Top recommendation!<\/p>\n

“Buy it now” price on this one is a mere $8850.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, I’m not so sure about the “mere” part, and some of the other stuff in there is a bit\u00a0over the top & rather irrelevant\u00a0as well, but none the less, the horn looks very pretty. I guess I’ll just chalk the rather exuberant prose up to flowery advertising.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

I am curious though, why a horn with such little\u00a0wear would\u00a0need to have its tone holes removed and re-soldered.<\/p>\n

My Buescher bass,\u00a0which has way more mileage on it than this one has, didn’t have all this\u00a0work done to it when Paul Coats restored it, with the help of Steve Goodson. It simply didn’t need it. Yes, there was some leaking at a couple of the tone holes, and those were repaired, but that was all.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: eBay.com<\/h6>\n

If I were in the market for a “new to me” vintage\u00a0bass, this one would certainly be a contender, but I’d be calling the seller, and\u00a0asking\u00a0them\u00a0 some questions about the work they\u00a0did, and why they did it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’d also be asking\u00a0about the new case. What kind it is, for some photos of it, and for some photos of the horn in the case.\u00a0I’m also curious what happened to the original case.\u00a0A horn in such good\u00a0condition, would most likely have an original\u00a0case in good\u00a0condition as well. Is that case still available?<\/p>\n

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…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span>My \u201creal\u201d <\/strong>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":"

The Wichita Band Instrument Company, currently has a\u00a0vintage bass sax up for auction on eBay that caught my eye. I first noticed this horn on\u00a0December …<\/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":[6],"tags":[150,619,640,660,644,643,31],"class_list":["post-4029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bass-saxophone","tag-american-saxophones","tag-bass-saxophone","tag-buescher","tag-ebay","tag-photos","tag-vintage-horns","tag-vintage-sax"],"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