Saxophones Corton Yamagisawa stencil

[daveq]

Hi I have recently purchased a corton alto sax on e-bay,that is a yanagisawa A-4 stencil made in 1973.Were stencil saxophones especialy yanagisawas exported to america or could it have started life in the uk/europe.As my teacher/myself was interested in its history.

 

[spike]

hi dave . . . here's a quote from steven howard's website - on the yamaha yas21 alto page

. . . around the early 1970's ) the student sax market was ruled by just two brands ... the Corton (Czech built, also sold as the Lafluer ) and the East German B&M Champion ( which also popped up under at least three other brand names ). It would be unfair to say that these were dreadful instruments, but even with the most rose-tinted of viewpoints you couldn't ever say they were great horns

just out of interest - (as far as I know) Corton later became Amati.

gruss - spike

 

[chris_j]

Do you mean stencil or copy?

A stencil is an instrument made by a company, but engraved with a different logo. An example would be my VITO VSP. It was made by Yanagisawa and is identicle to the equivalent Yanagisawa model in every why, including the room it was built in.

information regarding stencils - click
here

Copies are different, however, where obviously a company copies a sax but makes it themselves. An example might be a Yanagisawa S6 - which was a copy of the Selmer soprano.

Chris

 

[daveq]

It is a stencil rather than a copy,it has the yani logo on the crook bell brace and above the serial number and says japan A-4,and has corton deluxe engraved on bell.Thanks chris for the interesting link.

 

[chris_j]

Hi Daveq

In which case you have a Yanagisawa A4 which started its life like any other Yanagisawa A4

Some history
here

and some photos to compare it with
here

Others may know whether that stencil was sold in the European market or the American one

Chris

 

[spike]

like chris says if there's yanni on it, there's yanni in it

you might check the serial number against the yanni A-4 list, also you could ask yanagisawa for help. They stenciled a lot out to the states in the seventies, there's no reason why they shouldn't have gone through european companies too.

 

[jambo]

I just got a vinatge alto that is apparently a Buesher Stencil. Its marked 'Windsor'.

I cant find any decent info on this though

 

[daveq]

Interesting link to yani history Chris with lots of yani stencils but no mention of corton.

 

[chris_j]

Hi Daveq

I have done a quick search on SOTW, see the link
here

The thread dates from 2004, but you will see that 2 Swedish members both had a Corton that was a Yani stencil. They wonder whether it was a Swedish stencil, therefore. It certainly makes it more likely to be European, I guess

There are other references to a Yanagisawa stencil, Corton. They all refer to a Corton De Lux, however. Is that what is on yours?

Chris

 

[daveq]

Thanks for the info Chris and it does have conton deluxe engraved on the bell.So it could have originated in sweden,are the swedes a sax playing nation and would yani have exported there?

 

[chris_j]

So now we know what the Swedish population get up to in those long winter nights......

I don't know anything about the Corton name, but it sounds like a name that has done the rounds like "Vito". As spike said, the Czech company Amati use the Corton name now. I have no idea who used it, or how it was used, before Amati had it. It might be just like Leblanc use the Vito name, but there is a huge and often vague history (with very authorative threads about it on the SOTW web site) of the fortunes of the Vito mark over the passage of time.

But I suspect that, rather than Yani exporting, it is more a matter of another company taking the initiative and importing from Japan, stenciling the instruments as Corton De Lux.

Again, similar to the link between Leblanc and Yanagisawa, when (I think, correct me if I have it wrong) Leblanc took over the Vito mark and first sold a Vito range of saxophones made by Yanagisawa (as Vito VSP), but then made by Yamaha and now their Vito model is a student model made in Taiwan

Chris

 

[daveq]

CHRISJ i e-mailed the seller of the corton sax i purchased and her huband brought it from sweden,so corton looks like it was a swedish brand.