King Zephyr Special Tenor Full Pearls 266xxx Overhauled Great!

Description

Here is a beautiful original lacquer King Zephyr Special tenor 266xxx with full pearls and solid silver neck. This is the later version of the Zephyr Special that is very much like an early Super 20 tenor (silver double socket neck, full pearls, similar tone etc.)

This horn has just received a full overhaul by Marvin Krantz at St. Louis Woodwind and Brass, which is one of the most established and highly-respected shops in the Midwest. Marvin has a lifetime of experience with vintage and professional saxophones (including some of mine), and it shows on this horn. It comes with a nice ($100) set of TenorMadness screw-in/reusable domed brass resonators (Reso-tech style) that give the horn a bit more vibrancy and punch while preserving the basic tone very well. I have these resos on my personal horns.

Even more than the beauty, rarity and great build quality of this horn, the tone is the main reason to buy it. Simply put, this is one of the best tenors that I have played this year, and that is saying a lot. People play vintage horns because they just sound better than anything made today. And with a good overhaul, you know that you are getting a horn that is actually playing the way that it is supposed to. (You would be surprised how many people bought a beat up or cheaper vintage horn somewhere and have been playing for years on a horn that is only half of what it can/should be.) The later Zephyr Special plays a bit darker than an early Super 20, with a more spread, fat tone, but other than that, it is pretty similar. It’s not as delicate of a core tone as an early Selmer (SBA etc) – more powerful and less focused. Lots of potential for being a very expressive tenor sound. Compared to a Selmer or a Super 20, the LH pinky keys are less modern, and take a couple of weeks to get used to. But the mechanism is light and easy to use nonetheless. And the sound is HUGE, dark, and complex, blowing away all of the modern imitations of a sound like this that (unfortunately) only achieve the pale shadow of the real thing.

There are not that many later Zephyr Specials out there, and of those, few are in such clean condition. This horn still has quite a bit of the factory lacquer over the silver neck, giving it that mottled look. That is pretty uncommon to see. The neck has never been pulled down or had any work done to it. The horn has had only a little bit of work done – neck receiver resoldered and some small dings removed from the back of the bow area (also no big deal). So now’s the chance for someone to nab a really nice, clean vintage full pearls King with a top shelf overhaul that is just waiting to get played.