Your buescher is from 1939. series1 aristocrat. You wont find a better modern horn unless you want to spend big bucks and even then the buescher may be better. Dont sell it to buy an intermediate sop. If you want a soprano save the money first but dont sell a wonderful vintage horn for a modern horn that will drop in value. Dave

Thanks Dave and Jim for the great advise, I actually took the Buescher in to a tech today, that also does work for the folks at Sax Quest, I live in St. Louis. He is doing a complete overhaul and said in two weeks it will be better than at anytime during the 43 years I have owned it. He said the brass finish was about 85-90 %, the gold plated springs looked good, but is replacing the pads, cork, and fixing two very small dents, and giving it the attention only an expert technician can. I am looking forward to getting it back, Do you think the Yamaha Y-62's is the best route to go on that soprano or since you gave such good advise and changed my course of actions what would you recommend, I really don't want to spend more than around 1200 bucks. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. SteveH

The Antigua Winds sopranos are very good for the money. They are a Taiwanese copy of a Yanagisawa (A-991, I believe), and they play very well and have excellent intonation. I don't think you'll find a better horn than the Antigua for less that $1,200. The Yamaha YSS-475 sopranos are nice also. How much do you plan on playing soprano? I wasted my money on a Keilwerth SX-90 soprano. I love the horn, but no more than I play soprano, the Antigua probably would have suited me just fine.

You now I am not sure how much I will be playing it, probably not all that much. But when I tested it today I really did not like the tone of it that much. I noticed too that I have a bit of a wind problem due to smoking and have rouble with tonal quality of my low notes. I need a horn that requires less than average wind to get the best tonal qualities, and of course I need to start practicing to redevelop my skills , I am sure as I do the wind will improve. But you guys have got me looking at things a little differently about vintage verses new, and I noticed there were several horns that would be good alternatives on this web site, one was that silver conn soprano, in the vintage horns for sale section, that Chu Berry they had for sale also caught my eye. I like you like to collect nice things, and this may be the route I go.

A quick question for you of the vintage saxes listed in the saxquest instruments for sale under $2000, which you be most interested in. Also, I was going through some of the forums and reading some of the exchanges you had about the vintage Conns with Tango and Mark O, who is this tango guy and what is the organization Knights of ___, he is involved with. I was really impressed with your knowledge and your problem solving ability. In fact I think you nailed all of the possible scenarios of that whole issue on thetransitional era. Nice job...