News

— Published on September 13th, 2012 by Saxquest

Just acquired scans of a fascinating 20 page booklet from Otto Link that dates to 1940 from my friend John Weir. It includes interesting facts about the processing of hard rubber (eburnated) and the facing machines used on both the hard rubber Reso-Chamber and the metal Tone Master mouthpieces at that time.

John scanned it and I've posted the entire catalog up on the saxophone.org web site for anyone interested. Just go to the museum section and select Otto Link as the manufacture in the mouthpiece section and you'll see a tab for publications.

Interestingly, it shows that you could have used Otto Link's refacing services in 1940 and had a hard rubber Link refaced for $1.25 or a metal Tone Master done for $2.00. The booklet also details the type of mouthpiece and the precise facing used by a huge number of players at that time (including Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Joe Allard, Benny Carter, Bud Freeman, Cecil Leeson, Don Redmond, Vido Musso, Arthur Rollini, Ben Webster, Buddy Tate and many others). One last thing I learned from this is that Otto Link also made the Tone Master mouthpiece for soprano sax, c-melody and bass sax by special order. I've never seen a c-melody or bass sax Otto Link Tone Master.

— Published on May 2nd, 2012 by Saxquest

We just added several early H.N. White King catalogs to the saxophone.org museum. Be sure to check out the most recent updates.

— Published on March 31st, 2012 by Saxquest

The Saxquest Museum uploaded an incredibly scare film that showcases saxophone production at the Buescher Band Instrument Company in 1924.

The original footage was shot on 35mm cellulose acetate film and was made as a silent film. This was a project initiated by the Atlas Educational Film Company and was titled, "The Fine Art of Musical Instrument Making - Saxophone Production". This film was exhibited in schools and YMCA houses throughout the USA and was also shown at many of the better-class motion picture theatres.

The main focus of the film is to show the saxophone manufacturing process inside the Buescher factory. Incredible footage details processes such as cutting the bell from sheet brass, spinning and shaping the bell, brazing the bottom bow from two half shells, forming the neck, drawing the tone holes, and much more. The film also shows a short sequence of the Cylde Doerr Orchestra at the famous Congress Hotel.  There's a trailing clip that shows Gus Buescher and Paul Whiteman in April of 1925 when the Whiteman band was given a full factory tour and day long reception in Elkhart that is spliced together with the 1924 footage. Probably no single force sold more instruments for Buescher in the 1920s than the Whiteman Band's Buescher endorsement.

The film as it appears here was put togther from two reels. The Saxquest Museum had the films digitized using 2K digital transfer which is a high resolution digital archival format. Once they were digitized, it was easy to combine the material from each reel into a single "best copy" that is presented here. EMJOY!!!

— Published on March 31st, 2012 by Saxquest

We just added two wonderful set of photos from Buescher Band Instrument Co. You can view these photos in the saxophone museum featured in the factory tours sub-section.

1. The first is from 1928. These photos showcase the factory workers. All of the employees were all identified by Irene Weaver who started at Buescher in the stockroom in 1928 and worked her way up to secretary to O.E. Beers by the 1940's. 

2. The second set of photos dates to 1935-36. These photos also showcase the factory employees of whom some are identified.

— Published on January 28th, 2012 by Saxquest

After a serious 2 year effort, Thursday January 19, 2012 we finally launched the new version of saxophone.org. We've put a lot of effort into creating a web site that is both rich in content and provides many opportunities for social networking amongst saxophone players. Please take advantage of the many features included in this site and ENJOY!!!

Mark Overton - saxophone.org, webmaster