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Saxophones Bari identification request

ellinas

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Athens, Greece
could you please help me identify this bari?
Nickwat_3.jpg
 
I guess this is a Buescher 400. Don't know which series.
Looks like a low A was added.
 
Yes, it's lööks like a Buescher 400 according to the tone holes and bell keys placement on the bell. It's a low A bari done by a piece was added to the bell. I have not seen any american made low A Buescher (Selmer USA) before. Conn 11M and Conn 14M (UMI) were also constructed that way. And older B&S (Weltklang, ....)
 
Thanks everyone.
It's really sad people chop and modify historical horns like this one...
<my personal opinion>
 
Thanks everyone. It's really sad people chop and modify historical horns like this one...<my personal opinion>

Who knows, if Buescher had continued to make baris they may have added a low A to their horns as well once they became popular.

Jeff Peterson at Yamaha actually turned a new low A bari into one that only goes down to Bb. Since Yamaha has only made them with low A, he wanted to see how one with a shorter bow plays. Some jazz players who do only combo work like the Bb horns because they are lighter. Those who play in big bands need the low A saxes to play the parts that are written to include this range.
 
That's where in my opinion you choose what you want.
Personally I like Bb baris.

In Hammond organs (i'm a hammond organist) people do nasty things like that:

McKinstry%20Full%20angle.jpg


They chop them to make them portable. But where is the fun of playing a hammond organ unless you ride it? And this thing looks awful to me.

If portability is an issue then there nice portable clones that do the job, for example Crumar Mojo
08.jpg

which does the job better and it has a personality of it's own
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrpKiB9Fa94

It's a shame to modify historic (20+ years old) in such a way when there are people that search for them and can't find them.
 
I agree with everything you have said. However, when someone owns and instrument that can do whatever they please with it. I do saxophone repairs for a living and do occasionally make small modifications to vintage saxophones to make them more ergonomically comfortable to play, or make them easier to adjust and regulate. These are generally improvements that the same manufacturer added to later models they produced. However if a customer asked me to make a drastic change that alters the "character" of a sax to make it something it is not, I would tell them they would have to take it somewhere else.
 
That's where in my opinion you choose what you want.
Personally I like Bb baris.

In Hammond organs (i'm a hammond organist) people do nasty things like that:

McKinstry%20Full%20angle.jpg


They chop them to make them portable. But where is the fun of playing a hammond organ unless you ride it? And this thing looks awful to me.

If portability is an issue then there nice portable clones that do the job, for example Crumar Mojo
08.jpg

which does the job better and it has a personality of it's own
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrpKiB9Fa94

It's a shame to modify historic (20+ years old) in such a way when there are people that search for them and can't find them.

people have been 'splitting' Hammond Organs since the 60's - long before the Crumar or the Korg BX3 and all the other portable Hammond clones came along.
That one on legs is atypical, usually the cabinet was made into two halves, like this - http://www.hammondhire.com/hammondorganc3splitrestoration.htm
http://www.dawksound.com/hammond.html

presumably the top and bottom bolted together securely enough to survive the onstage antics of rock organists in the 70's
you'd not find it as much fun hauling a full Hammond B3 up and down stairs in the kind of dingy R'n'B clubs that people like Graham Bond used to play in - and I think it was Graham Bond who first got a Hammond split for portability.. maybe he should've stuck to playing alto sax.
It's the odd thing about vintage instruments, years ago they weren't vintage, so people took them for granted and did what they wanted with them. How many sax crooks and mouthpieces had holes drilled on them for pickups in the late 60's and 70's? How many saxes were relacquered because the bandleader wouldn't employ you if you had a shabby looking instrument? Nobody thought "this'll be worth a fortune in 40 years time, I'd better keep it original". :oops:
 
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