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...couldn't resist this one, and thanks to Ads for tipping me off although speaking to Graham at Hansons just, who asked Alastair in the background, the ST5 was based on the SA80 not the Buffet. It was the SA5 (which Ads thought this might be) which was similar to the Buffet 400. Just phoning these guys ended up with me in tears of laughter as they are always full of fun.
I phoned up as strangely this horn has no serial number by the thumb rest. Graham confirmed it's an ST5 from my description and I've emailed some photos to him just to check. I'm guessing it may be a demo model as with my Buffet 400 Alto which also had no S/N.
Anyway... how does it play? It's a distance buy so out of its packaging, on with my Soloist F, and... squawkkkk! Won't play the low octave. Ah... I know this one - octave key not fully closing. Yep, that's it. Pencil under the key trick and it's fine. All notes playing... yes! Seems perfect. A little tootle on a few tunes and it's light under the fingers and has a nicely extended Eb/C for my little finger.
No dents or dings, a few little tarnishing spots commensurate to its age (I think this must be an early one?) and we have another great (British) tenor.
Will it beat the Grassi - I think not, but I'll give them a go together when I have time.
🙂