{"id":7554,"date":"2014-06-05T10:41:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T17:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/?page_id=7554"},"modified":"2021-01-01T16:41:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T18:41:43","slug":"jubilee-alto-sax","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/about\/gear\/restorations\/jubilee-alto-sax\/","title":{"rendered":"Jubilee Alto Sax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"saxophone,<\/a><\/p>\n

I so loved my JK-stencilled Jubilee tenor<\/a>, that when the opportunity presented itself to buy its twin in alto form, I couldn’t pass it up. Like the tenor, this Jubilee alto sax is a stencil of Julius Keilwerth’s Toneking model saxophone that has the high F# key. Also like the tenor, it is a Series III horn from the late 1950s, which means that it originally came from the factory with a Lucite angel wing and clothes guard (both of which had suffered some damage and needed to be replaced if the horn was to look like new<\/em> again). And just as importantly for me, this particular horn too was in extremely fine condition. This horn also happened to have all its original accessories included.<\/p>\n

\"vintage<\/a><\/p>\n

I found the sax through a colleague of mine who is a pro player, teacher, and dealer of used horns from Vancouver. He had been advertising the horn for a few weeks through Vancouver craigslist, but I held off phoning him because I kept telling myself that I didn’t need another alto. In the end however, he came out to visit me and brought the sax with him. Talk about temptation. Of course you know I had to buy it then. Just look at it.<\/p>\n

Here’s the thing though, when I play-tested it at my house that day the intonation was horrible. I felt like a hack. Although I used my Runyon Custom 8 mouthpiece on it\u2014the one I use on every alto I ever play because it makes me sound like a real<\/em> alto player, not just a tenor\/bari player playing alto\u2014I simply sucked. I assumed the problem was a simple key height issue.<\/p>\n

There were some minor problems with the horn, and besides a horn this pretty deserved to get the full Matterhorn Music<\/a> restoration\u2014including an original Julius Keilwerth replacement angel wing and clothes guard<\/a>\u2014so I figured David would figure out what was wrong with the key heights for me. When David had finished the restoration, and I tried the horn, the intonation was still off, despite David having opened the horn as far as he could. This left me trying to find a mouthpiece for this Toneking in Jubilee clothing.<\/p>\n

I did a lot of searching online; consulted with JK Toneking and The New King Players; as well as spoke to Keilwerth guru Matt Stohrer<\/a>. Through all these consultations I learned something very important: Although vintage JK tenors are not fussy when it comes to mouthpieces, the altos most definitely are. These vintage alto Toneking and The New King horns require a very large chamber piece.<\/p>\n

I tried all kinds of different pieces, but none were successful at bringing the horn 100% in tune. It wasn’t until a fellow from the UK wrote to me and told me that he found mouthpiece happiness for his vintage JK alto by using the stock mouthpiece. He suggested I try to hunt down one of those. Luckily I just so happened to have one, since this Jubilee alto sax came with all its original accessories, including the original Keilwerth-supplied mouthpiece, ligature, and cap.<\/p>\n

Although I am not 100% happy with the tone, at least I can now play this beautiful vintage Jubilee alto sax in tune. I will continue to try to find another large chamber piece whose tone I might prefer a bit more, but in the meantime, at least I have a mouthpiece that allows me to play this beautiful horn.<\/p>\n

Jubilee Alto Sax Specs<\/h2>\n