Re: Bass Saxophone-Lyon Healy
The bass saxophone that you are referring to is probably a Buescher stencil very similar to a True Tone bass, and was probably made sometime in the mid 1920's. Martin made just a few bass saxophones, mostly early handcraft models, and I don't think any were sold under the Lyon Healy name. I could be wrong.
The bis type key that you are referring to is probably either a trill key, or an alternate fingering key.
As for the palm keys, some earlier C Melody and Bass saxophones were only keyed to E, instead of F, and therefore had only two palm keys or spatula keys.
There are basically three types of tone holes. The lip or edge of the tone hole, of course, makes contact with the pad to form a seal.
The most common type of tone hole is a straight "drawn" or "extruded" tone hole. These tone holes are extruded or drawn from the material of the sax body & the tone hole itself is formed from the same piece of metal that comprises the body. It is the same thickness as the metal of the saxophone body. If your sax is a True Tone stencil as I suspect, it will have this type of tone hole.
The second type is the rolled tone hole, which can be found on most Conn saxophones made from 1922 to 1947. Rolled tone holes are similar to drawn tone holes, except the the edge or lip of the tone hole is "rolled over" to increase the surface area that comes in contact with the pad.
The third type is the beveled tone hole, also sometimes called a soldered tone hole. Holes are cut into the saxophone body, and a separate tone hole assembly is soldered into place. This was common on Martin saxophones and a few others.
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