Saxophones Salem?

[Hallelujahal]

Hi folks, I work as a prison chaplain and found an old alto sax with some broken key work in a cupboard at the back of the chapel. I’m going to repair it this afternoon. But I’m interested in knowing a bit about the model. It’s just named Salem on the bell with a little bit of fancy stencil work. No numbers or makers marks anywhere, so I’m assuming it was a cheap model made by a larger manufacturer who would be unwilling to put their name to it?
Anyway I just love patina and hope to get it playing again 😁

 

[mark_addy]

Looks good Hal (may I call you Hal?). I'm a churchgoer, and my bro-in-law is a vicar. The most useful thing he found at church (from my perspective, as I ended up with them) were a pair of oak coffin trestles, buried in the 'youth cupboard' 🙂 Hope your sax turns out OK. I taught sax at a Nacro adult ed project in Manchester (when such a thing existed) but never met anyone who started to play inside.

 

[JayeNM]

Hi folks, I work as a prison chaplain and found an old alto sax with some broken key work in a cupboard at the back of the chapel. I’m going to repair it this afternoon. But I’m interested in knowing a bit about the model. It’s just named Salem on the bell with a little bit of fancy stencil work. No numbers or makers marks anywhere, so I’m assuming it was a cheap model made by a larger manufacturer who would be unwilling to put their name to it?
Anyway I just love patina and hope to get it playing again 😁

Interesting, can you post more photos ? Oppsite side of the sax ?
Is there any serial number near the thumb hook ?

Wild educated guess is it looks like an 80's asian stencil horn...the key spats are modern, that is all I can go on on dating really "Larger manufacturer" maybe or maybe not...offhand it does not scream of being a major-brand stencil (Yamaha, Jupiter, Conn, King, UMI, Conn-Selmer, Buffet, the common Italians or Germans....)

But some more pics might help.

If it is what it appears to be, even in play-condition it probably has little value, maybe $300usd tops.

In it's current state, perhaps $100usd. Unless it can be ascertained what factory it might have been from.

Professional tech repair may well get up over $300usd, putting this one into the "It'll cost more to fix than it'd ever be worth (market-wise). But that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a decent player.

 

[Hallelujahal]

Yes thanks appreciate your thoughts I’ll try and post a few more pics. I really don’t expect it to have any value as I reckon it was donated to the jail a few decades ago. Although it does have an interesting looking Selmer mouthpiece which looks as old as the horn imo 😁

 

[Colin the Bear]

Mouthpiece may be worth more than the horn.

The scroll work decoration on the horn looks very Selmeresque.

More detailed pictures would help. Full length both sides, keywork, lh table etc.

 

[Vlad]

Hasn't got a witch engraved on it then..?

 

[JiJi]

Just an idea ! From Taiping, Taichung, I'm looking in Taiwan. I haven't found an alto to compare it to, but there's this tenor. Ta Feng Long ?
This could date back to the company's beginnings (1970-1980), and Salem should be a trademark ?
This type of Mark VI copy

 

[Stephen Howard]

I haven't seen one of these in a very long time.
Early Taiwanese - around the 1980s if I remember rightly. Not very nice at all. The 'selling' feature was the 'nod to Selmer' - and I think they even had a blue enamelled S on the crook key.
No idea who was bringing them in to the UK (I don't think it was Lewingtons) but when folks used to call me up to ask about servicing a sax my heart always sank a little when they said it was a Salem.
On the plus side, it wasn't a Michael White.

Definitely not worth spending very much money on at all (a £300 Chinese horn will kick it into a corner) but a reasonable horn for learning the DIY ropes on.

 

[JiJi]

 

[Stephen Howard]

Yep, that's it.

 

[JayeNM]

Wonder what became of the Taiwan factories that were active back then? KHS started producing Jupiters in 1987, Tenon ostensibly was/is the maker of Chateau, which stated appearing in around 2007ish...Eastman ROC saxes started appearing around 2010-12....

...prior to those brands existing always have wondered if their factories turned out saxes...

KHS website says their first factory was established in 1956, then sorta implies (but it is vague) that they started selling wares outside of Asia in 60's-70's....

 

[JiJi]

I asked myself, and I still ask myself, the same question. I started writing an article on copies of the Buffet Crampon Dynaction model as well as copies of the Mark VI made in Taiwan, but little data exists.
I will complete it based on my findings.
You have a translator on the right.
Here

 

[Stephen Howard]

I asked myself, and I still ask myself, the same question. I started writing an article on copies of the Buffet Crampon Dynaction model as well as copies of the Mark VI made in Taiwan, but little data exists.
I will complete it based on my findings.
You have a translator on the right.
Here

Very useful, thank you!

 

[JayeNM]

I asked myself, and I still ask myself, the same question. I started writing an article on copies of the Buffet Crampon Dynaction model as well as copies of the Mark VI made in Taiwan, but little data exists.
I will complete it based on my findings.
You have a translator on the right.
Here

Those Buffet copies some were pretty good, i mean they took some discernment to determine they were not Buffet. The ones I have seen were not forgeries, they has stencil names, and again some played pretty well and were built quite respectably. These appear once or twice a year on eBay, they never sell for much but again, the couple i have had on my bench were by no means bad at all.

Then there are the mildly Yanagsiawa-looking straight sopranos from circa 80's-early 90's as well, reputed to be Taiwanese as well. Sorta Yani-shaped pinky table and palmkeys, with the "step" in the top of the body tube right before it reaches the neck cork...

The last three photos in your article are Jupiter stencils. If you look at some Evette Buffet contemporary models you can see they are the same, sometimes different spat key shapes. Jupe Taiwan KHS stencils have a few obvious telltale signs, I always initially look at the octave key first. Then neck receiver, then bow ferrule details. Some others after that...

Good essay, I bookmarked it. I would be really interested in your opinion as to whether Chateau brand is in fact from Tenon factory, too...there is speculation online but I do not believe any confirmation based upon comparing a Chateau to a sax confirmed to be produced by Tenon.


Do you know how many factories in ROC currently produce saxes ?

 

[JiJi]

"I would be really interested in your opinion as to whether Chateau brand is in fact from Tenon factory"
I don't know, my interest lies in the older models, not the Series 2 copies
There are some very interesting posts on Sotw about Taiwanese manufacturing.
dlrsax
Thank you both of you.