Hohner Brochure – circa 1950

Features, or lack thereof, that indicate date of publication

Unusual neck & bow guards

The tenor illustrated on this page, and the alto illustrated on the next page, have a couple of features that I have not seen before on Hohner Presidents:

• Note the neck guard. This type of guard is not typical on any of the alto or tenor Hohner-made President saxophones that I have seen. The man in the moon neck guard is however, something we see in some of the President saxophones Max Keilwerth made in his shop in Graslitz, before relocating to Germany and starting up saxophone production for Hohner. 
• Note the bow guard. It too looks like the one we see in some of MK’s President models.
• In this photo you can see the both the neck and bow guard differences. The horn on top was made by Hohner. The one on the bottom by MK in his shop in Graslitz, and is stamped with his Pure Tone Trademark logo.

The missing round thumb screw & what it tells us

This tenor in the illustration is also lacking something that is a Hohner President feature: the round, front-mounted, thumb screw for tightening the neck. However, the lack of this tells us something very important about the age of this brochure, and by extension, something about the age of the horns it is promoting.

In the early 1950s, Hohner switched its neck design to a legally protected—”gesetzlich geschützten”—(abbreviated Ges.- Gesch. on the socket of the horn), true, double socket neck. This neck was held in place by the round thumb screw shown in the previous 2 photos. Prior to the advent of the double socket neck, the neck fastening screw of the Hohner Presidents looked liked it did on any other saxophones—as illustrated in this alto, serial number 24XX.

The neck fastening screw on the tenor in the brochure looks like a conventional one. Furthermore, Hohner does not mention anything about a “Ges. – Gesch.” neck design. The earliest horn I have seen with this Ges. – Gesch. neck is tenor 2215, from 1952, which would make the horns illustrated in this brochure pre-1952.

Rolled tone holes anyone?

Something else that Hohner would most likely have mentioned, if these horns had them, were rolled tone holes. According to the serial number and features chart that I’ve compiled through a variety of reliable sources, drawn/rolled tone holes first made their appearance in 1953. Prior to this, the tone holes were soldered, and had a bevelled appearance. Alto 24XX illustrates these early soldered/bevelled tone holes very well.

Unfortunately the tone hole details were really not included in these illustrations of the tenor and alto saxophones. Therefore we cannot, with 100% certainty, say that these illustrated Presidents did not have rolled tone holes. However, in all likelihood these advertised horns were likely pre-rolled tone holes.

What’s missing in the finish options

German saxophone historian, professional musician, and repair tech, Uwe Ladwig, has listed 4 finish options for the Hohner Presidents ¹:

1. Lacquer
2. Silver plated
3. Nickel plated
4. Two tone: lacquer body with nickel plated keys

The pamphlet only notes 3 finish options. The two tone option—which became the most popular—is not listed here. Obviously Hohner only began offering the lacquer body with nickel plated keys later in the President’s production run. The earliest example of a two tone President that I have encountered to date is tenor 2215, which is circa 1952.

¹ I want to thank Uwe Ladwig for generously sharing his research with me. It was originally published in der deutschen Fachzeitschrift—German music journal—SONIC sax & brass.