Saxophones Arta Guban tenor

[Colin the Bear]

There's an effortlessness to the Yamaha whereas the Luxor sounds like it needs more player input.

 

[Woodpad]

It sounds like the Yamaha has slightly better pads. Combined with the larger bell of the Luxor you need more effort to play the Luxor.

 

[Tyrone]

Thanks @JayeNM for the great write-up about the Arta Guban. Probably the most comprehensive on the 'net so far. I've got an tenor Arta Guban myself, but it needs some repadding now, to allow the lower notes to work again (everything below low D!). Last time I played it must have been around 2006. I've taken a break from sax playing until this year ('26) when I got myself a shiny new one with a visit to London's sax.co.uk. (They were wonderful - recommended). I was initially thinking of selling my Arta (if I could fined a taker!), but since finding the above posts, I intend to get it back to full working condition. Mine is a standard brass offering. The laquer has peeled off in places, there's discoloration on some of the keys and there's a couple of dents. Even now though, the sound is pretty good (where the pads don't need replacing!)- it has a real 1950's jazz sound. Engraving is there, together with the facia at the joints as per the pictures.

BTW mine is serial 36, stamped directly on the rear of the body and on the back of the stem of the neck. I wonder what date that would be? Probably soon after the end of WW2? Maybe 1947 or so.

 

[JayeNM]

Thanks @JayeNM for the great write-up about the Arta Guban. Probably the most comprehensive on the 'net so far. I've got an tenor Arta Guban myself, but it needs some repadding now, to allow the lower notes to work again (everything below low D!). Last time I played it must have been around 2006. I've taken a break from sax playing until this year ('26) when I got myself a shiny new one with a visit to London's sax.co.uk. (They were wonderful - recommended). I was initially thinking of selling my Arta (if I could fined a taker!), but since finding the above posts, I intend to get it back to full working condition. Mine is a standard brass offering. The laquer has peeled off in places, there's discoloration on some of the keys and there's a couple of dents. Even now though, the sound is pretty good (where the pads don't need replacing!)- it has a real 1950's jazz sound. Engraving is there, together with the facia at the joints as per the pictures.

BTW mine is serial 36, stamped directly on the rear of the body and on the back of the stem of the neck. I wonder what date that would be? Probably soon after the end of WW2? Maybe 1947 or so.

Very cool...even though he is no looker, post a picture here if you wanna, this might in fact be the most useful thread on Arta there is (?)
Funny this thread got brought back up this week , there is/was another Tenor (brass lacq) on eBay here this week.,.

 

[Tyrone Hopes]

sorry about thd late reply! Here's some pictures of the beast:

 

[Tyrone Hopes]

And a couple more showing the unique AG speaker key design and the serial #36.

 

[Tyrone Hopes]

So. Where do I start getting this up and running again? I guess i completely remove everything and get it acid dipped to get all the old laquer off then get it it re-laquered, plated or sprayed? What's best? Does spray painting change the sound and/or is that considered sacrilege? 🙂 I was thinking deep crimson paint job with nickel-plated keys (not chrome - that would be awful!)

 

[JayeNM]

relacquers are hella pricey...a decent one is around $2g these days. Do not DIY a relacq, it will turn out very bad.

Problem with paint, even auto paint, is that padwork, etc requires a heat torch, flame, painted finishes cannot withstand that so the paint would burn. Also dent removal on a painted finish could crack the finish.

Two choices...chem bathe it professionally, and hand polish, let it just be what it is gonna be...or....strip the lacq off and hand polish to a shiny bare brass, let it patina over time...there is a chance it will not patina nicely, but as much chance it will

 

[Tyrone Hopes]

relacquers are hella pricey...a decent one is around $2g these days. Do not DIY a relacq, it will turn out very bad.

Problem with paint, even auto paint, is that padwork, etc requires a heat torch, flame, painted finishes cannot withstand that so the paint would burn. Also dent removal on a painted finish could crack the finish.

Two choices...chem bathe it professionally, and hand polish, let it just be what it is gonna be...or....strip the lacq off and hand polish to a shiny bare brass, let it patina over time...there is a chance it will not patina nicely, but as much chance it will

Thanks for the ideas @JayeNM - I didn't know one could do a DIY relacq - but I can imagine it would be so bad if I was doing it.. So maybe bathe and polish is the way to go. Bare brass with a hint of patina sounds like it could look quite classy.

 

[JayeNM]

Thanks for the ideas @JayeNM - I didn't know one could do a DIY relacq - but I can imagine it would be so bad if I was doing it.. So maybe bathe and polish is the way to go. Bare brass with a hint of patina sounds like it could look quite classy.

It can go well...or not well. The thing is if the patina doesn't develop in right direction (say it becomes spotty and stained with red rot from sweat or moisture), you can always clean it back down to bare, and use a different polish and perhaps a sealer/wax hand applied to try it again.

After stripping lacq, you chem clean down to bare (you could have a tech do this, or buy some hardware-store products to do it), then use a hand applied polish (Wenol, Maas, Flitz). if it looks good to you then, tgen either just let it be and start to age, or you could put a cloth applied wax or sealer.

Lacq removal can be done chemically with a stripper or you could try boiling water first, too. Although stripper will work, it can be kinda nasty to apply and fume-wise.

 

[JayeNM]

Personally, I might forego all that and just start by chem bathing body and neck tube, soap rinse, hand polish, and see how much of an improvement you get. It will not be an insignificant improvement, probably

 

[PigSquealer]

@Tyrone Hopes I wouldn’t suggest an acid wash. Just a good quality washing from a saxophone knowledgeable care technician. Acid washing is a risk. Especially on a fine vintage unit. Be this a pro or modest horn. Gentle love is all that’s needed.
I love the look of the body to bow bands. Artistic detail not often seen these days.

 

[JayeNM]

for the cleaning of the neck and body, you CAN try a dilution of muriatic acid (sold most often as pool surface cleaner) to water...but as Pig says, this is likely old school lacquer so it may inadvertently melt it all off...although then again that might save you a step in stripping.

But safer is a home cleaning with something like Barkeeper Friend or Wrights Copper Cream...if either are available in UK.

Better solution, no pun intended, would be taking it to a tech and having them chem or sonic bathe it.

Next question becomes...if you wanna do keys as well, then you would need to repad the horn. But if a good number of existing pads seal now, you may not wanna do that. If most are good, then you are left with hand polishing the keys with a paste and cloth.

 

[mark_addy]

I dug this thread up today, having had a close look at a friend's Arta Guban horn at our big band this afternoon. I translated (well, Google did) the German article up-thread - what a complicated history, and what determination must have been necessary to get large scale production going in communist Romania. Especially, my Polish friends usually tell me the best engineering products in the Eastern Bloc usually came out of the DDR - but here it seems the most craftsmanlike saxes came from Romania, which was not known for consumer goods at all, made in a workshop associated with a communist shoe factory led by Germans originally making instruments there during pre-great-war Austria-Hungary. It seems production ended when the scion of the family defected in '77 and his father (who ran the factory previously) died in '78. What an epic story!

 

[thomsax]

the best engineering products in the Eastern Bloc usually came out of the DDR

Maybe .... but I would say ..... most engineering products in the Eastern Bloc usually came out of the DDR. Why? Maybe they needed dollars ?????

 

[Woodpad]

I dug this thread up today, having had a close look at a friend's Arta Guban horn at our big band this afternoon. I translated (well, Google did) the German article up-thread - what a complicated history, and what determination must have been necessary to get large scale production going in communist Romania. Especially, my Polish friends usually tell me the best engineering products in the Eastern Bloc usually came out of the DDR - but here it seems the most craftsmanlike saxes came from Romania, which was not known for consumer goods at all, made in a workshop associated with a communist shoe factory led by Germans originally making instruments there during pre-great-war Austria-Hungary. It seems production ended when the scion of the family defected in '77 and his father (who ran the factory previously) died in '78. What an epic story!

The Hungarian Tarogat was also made in Romania. Despite it being a wooden instrument they didn't have to start from scratch. The Timisoara saxophone was made in the same factory. Here is some Romanian music made in the city with the same name:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqlvadLBvO8
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