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Saxophones Martin Handcraft Soprano 1927

Damflask

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Hello, I am reluctantly going to be selling my Soprano. It's in silver plate and has recently been rebuilt/restored by Paul Carrington.
What sort of price should I be asking?
 
Hello, I am reluctantly going to be selling my Soprano. It's in silver plate and has recently been rebuilt/restored by Paul Carrington.
What sort of price should I be asking?
A nice one sold recently for £900, and a refurbished tenor for £1,000. I wouldn't think even a nice soprano, with the benefit of a rebuild by a well regarded technician, would make more than a grand.
 
A nice one sold recently for £900, and a refurbished tenor for £1,000. I wouldn't think even a nice soprano, with the benefit of a rebuild by a well regarded technician, would make more than a grand.
Thanks.
There's one on Get A Sax for loadsamoney.
Not that any body has bought it of course.
 
Sadly I think it can be rare for the cost of a top notch overhaul to add its own value to a used horn.

It’s the same with houses, pay 50k for a new roof and it won’t add 50k to the house price.

I’d have thought though without the overhaul 700 ish depending on looks and bad if playability but with it if that tech is a trusted name then try for over a grand.

You could even ask for loadsamoney and take an offer, especially with very good pics of how well the restore was done.
 
I had a Lewin Bros (Martin stencil) that I bought for around £400 but it needed full overhaul/restoration. When my tech finally did the job it was a bit underwhelming so I ended up selling it for around £750 or £800 and just about broke even.

I then stumbled on another Martin soprano (a proper branded one this time and not a stencil) which was quite reasonably priced (about £650 iirc) and in decent playing condition. It's a great instrument and I still own it. I generally prefer my Conn curved soprano(s) but still have the Martin and it's probably my favourite vintage straight soprano.
 
I had a Lewin Bros (Martin stencil) that I bought for around £400 but it needed full overhaul/restoration. When my tech finally did the job it was a bit underwhelming so I ended up selling it for around £750 or £800 and just about broke even.

I then stumbled on another Martin soprano (a proper branded one this time and not a stencil) which was quite reasonably priced (about £650 iirc) and in decent playing condition. It's a great instrument and I still own it. I generally prefer my Conn curved soprano(s) but still have the Martin and it's probably my favourite vintage straight soprano.
Interesting. I've had several Martin Handcraft altos and tenors over the years and I now have both alto and tenor Lewin "Martins". I cannot find any difference in quality of build between these stencils and the "real mccoy". In fact the Lewins are better in the intonation dept., whereas I have had problems with this on previous Handcrafts. I'd go further and say that the tenor is one of the most in tune vintage tenors I've ever owned, and a real pleasure to play - I'm gigging it at the present time because I like it so much! I haven't owned a Martin soprano, but I borrowed a good condition 1927 example once, and found it had a lovely tone but the tuning wasn't it's strong point.
 
Hello,
the martin sop is fairly rare and in good shape worth quite a bit more the the altos and tenors.
Like always, you need to find someone buying it, but i would start not too low in price or even consider
to address the Us-market, if it is not too complicated.
Here is an technical review of a well known repair-man for the martin handcraft soprano.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIZUr0GaqPc
 
Interesting. I've had several Martin Handcraft altos and tenors over the years and I now have both alto and tenor Lewin "Martins". I cannot find any difference in quality of build between these stencils and the "real mccoy". In fact the Lewins are better in the intonation dept., whereas I have had problems with this on previous Handcrafts. I'd go further and say that the tenor is one of the most in tune vintage tenors I've ever owned, and a real pleasure to play - I'm gigging it at the present time because I like it so much! I haven't owned a Martin soprano, but I borrowed a good condition 1927 example once, and found it had a lovely tone but the tuning wasn't it's strong point.

I didnt have both horns at the same time so couldn't really compare them unfortunately. It might have been that the repair/overhaul on the Lewin was not the best job. The only obvious difference I know of was the Martin has a Conn style thumb ring where as the Lewin didn't.

Lewin:
2130DE86-0AE8-4F10-AAAA-4A66FCC75255.jpeg


Martin:
20221211_180903.jpg


20221211_180252.jpg
 
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