Supertone C-Melody in Matte Silver Plate with Gold-Wash Bell #52365 GORGEOUS STENCIL

Our Price: $ 750.00

Product ID: 52365SupertoneCMelSil

Martin Handcraft C-Melody Stencil Horn

Here we have an interesting vintage gem, a Supertone C-Melody saxophone in exquisite matte-silver plate with a captivating gold-washed bell, serial number #52365. You can tell it's a Martin stencil horn from the 1920s by its resemblance in the pinky key cluster, split bell-keys, and the soldered-on, beveled tone-holes. Stencil horns are usually reputable companies, allowing their product to be rebranded. Unfortunately, it's hard to discern the actual manufacture date of a stencil, but this one looks like a Handcraft model.

The SuperTone has full chromatic keywork from low Bb up to palm-F, no front-F mechanism. A few interesting features found on older horns, G# alternate trill option in the right hand activated by the left pinky G# key, and another trill option for Eb/D# operated by your middle finger while holding the D key down.

Physically, this horn is stunning, its matte silver plating is just about 100% intact; the blued-steel needle-springs look fantastic as well. The pads appear hardly used, but they are hard and old. Someone gave this horn a full restoration once, then put it away, maybe on display, for decades. Now the materials are all dried up and hard and could use a replacement. Luckily it's hard to find any proof of past work, this horn has no resolders, a few newer looking springs, and once-new-long-ago pads and corks.

Sonically, the SuperTone plays warm and sonorous, or singingly, in the middle and upper register. The low notes actually have some grit to them when you run a stiff tenor reed on a Saxquest St. Louis Tram hard rubber mouthpiece. Surprisingly, it's in tune for such an old horn.

We are going to ship this one in as-is condition with a hard-wood contoured C-Melody case with its original neck.