{"id":51098,"date":"2021-10-15T11:47:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T18:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=51098"},"modified":"2024-06-27T09:24:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T16:24:18","slug":"bs-blue-label-sax-serials-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2021\/bs-blue-label-sax-serials-features\/","title":{"rendered":"B&S blue label sax serials & features"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"B&S,<\/a>
Bell to body support brace of blue label alto # 2057. This appears to be one of the modified horns with the new bell and bow. Source: bluejob469 on eBay.co.uk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is hard to believe that I have been gathering data on B&S “blue label” saxophones for nearly a decade. That’s crazy! Therefore, it is not surprising that over the past few years more information has become available, and it is time to update my B&S pages on my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through the painstaking work of people at the Musikinstrumenten-Museums Markneukirchen, and through my colleague, Uwe Ladwig, all kids of data regarding the pre-unification horns has come to light. Some of the most interesting information that has recently been published in German sources about these “blue label” horns, involves the number of different models, as well as the evolution of these models.<\/p>\n

Something I noticed from the beginning of data gathering<\/h3>\n

Since I began tracking serial numbers and features of B&S saxophones, I noticed we had quite different features on horns very close in serial number. This led me to speculate if we had a step-up grade of “blue label” horn\u2014although nothing in the published materials indicated that was the case.<\/p>\n

It turns out that B&S changed the B&S “blue label” horns in 1985, and gave them them new bells and bows.1<\/sup><\/a> Additionally, serial numbers on the alto and tenor were restarted at 1001 and 1067 respectively. (No word on what happened with the baritones.) <\/p>\n

Apparently, this is why some serial numbers are duplicated\u2014e.g. I have recorded tenor # 2376 twice, but they are different horns. Furthermore, instruments that were still in stock, were updated with the new bells and bows, but their serial numbers were kept original.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

All of these peculiarities will be explored in detail when I finish with the rest of my research, and update the B&S pages of my site. I will post an update to this article when I have it completed.  <\/p>\n

B&S “blue label” saxes: serials and features presented in tables <\/h3>\n

Since the beginning I had gathered all the data I collected on Excel spread sheets. That made it difficult to share. After a recent discussion with some players on SOTW, I decided it was time to dust off the charts, and see about getting it up for everyone to take a look at. <\/p>\n

Enter the following 4 tables you see below<\/a>. Soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones each have their own table. These tables are not finished<\/strong>. At this point the data was just copied over from my Excel charts. <\/p>\n

Note: Pressing the + sign inside the circle will show further info on specific horns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I haven’t quite figured out yet how each of these horns will be described. I still need to finish researching all the German sources I have, and I need to correspond with Uwe a bit to tie up any loose ends. But at least these searchable tables are a start. <\/p>\n

At the time of writing, 269 horns (SATB) are represented in these tables. Why so few after nearly a decade of searching? For a number of reasons, mainly though, for this to work really well, I need serial numbers on horns, and not all sellers provide them. Also, many times the photos are not plentiful enough, or are of such poor quality, that I can’t find enough of the features I’m looking for to make the horn worth entering into the database. This is where you come in… <\/p>\n

B&S blue label census: count your horn in!<\/h2>\n

If you have a B&S blue, or gold label saxophone, and you would like to contribute to my research efforts, that would be greatly appreciated!<\/p>\n

These are the specs I\u2019m looking for:<\/strong><\/p>\n

For all saxophones:<\/strong><\/p>\n