{"id":45506,"date":"2017-01-16T11:14:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T19:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=45506"},"modified":"2025-08-09T11:11:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T18:11:01","slug":"review-of-an-a-e-sax-c-pitched-tenor-sax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2017\/review-of-an-a-e-sax-c-pitched-tenor-sax\/","title":{"rendered":"Review Of An A.E. Sax C-Pitched Tenor Sax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A.E.<\/a>Adolphe Edouard Sax C-pitched tenor saxophone<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Country of origin: <\/strong><\/span>France<\/p>\n

Date of manufacturing: <\/strong><\/span>1907-1928 1 <\/sup><\/a> (Likely prior to Selmer’s takeover of the Sax company).<\/p>\n

Date of Review:<\/strong><\/span> 2017<\/p>\n

It was in November 2012 that I first saw this A.E. Sax C-pitched tenor sax that belonged to a fellow who lives less than an hour from my place. At the time the horn was a train wreck, and if were ever to be played again, it would need a restoration complete with the manufacturing of new parts.<\/p>\n

The owner, Eric, was not a saxophone player, but nonetheless decided to get the work done by my tech\u2014David Gsponer\u2014who is also the owner of Matterhorn Music<\/a>. When David saw this poor thing, he took on the job, but told Eric that in order to keep the price down to a reasonable amount, he would have to do it during his slow periods.<\/p>\n

Eric was prepared for a long wait, since David had to do some research on what some of the missing pieces would have looked like originally. Most notably, the entire octave mechanism was missing, so David had to make one from scratch and then send it, and all the rest of the newly made parts (like tone hole chimneys) out for nickel plating.<\/p>\n

Over the holidays I got a phone call from Eric telling me that his sax was finally ready, and he hoped that I could join him at David’s shop when he went to pick it up. Last Tuesday is when this happened. I play-tested the horn, and took the after<\/em> pics of this very interesting, and quirky saxophone.<\/p>\n

I was only the second musician, and first saxophone player, to play this A.E. Sax C-pitched tenor sax in over half a century. Prior to that, who knows how long it had been sitting in pieces when Eric got it in the 1960s!<\/p>\n

One thing is for sure though, as pretty as this horn is, it is an odd duck, and doesn’t really fit into any modern music ensemble. That said, it is its own entity, and stands out both in looks and tone. More on both of these topics below.<\/p>\n

Specs<\/h2>\n