Buescher True Tone Tipped Bell Soprano 204xxx

Description

This is a super-rare tipped bell Buescher soprano. It has a curved neck that moves the horn down in your hands so that it hangs better on a neck strap and feels lighter and easier to play than a regular soprano. And the bell tips up to compensate for this, giving the horn a unique look. These sopranos are very rare and only come up for sale infrequently.  This horn is in very good condition, with almost all of the original silver intact, and the only past damage I notice is some dent work around the bell flare area, which is very common on any vintage soprano, since the case is so stiff in the bell area. This is cosmetic only and not very noticeable. There’s also a SSN# lightly engraved on the side of the horn behind the lower stack (belonging to the original owner born some 90 years ago). Besides that, the horn is very straight, clean, and original, which is pretty amazing. It has just been overhauled by Matt Stohrer, who is just about the best in the business for saxophone overhauls. Needless to say, it now plays the best that it possibly could, and that is very very well.

Sometimes horns are rare, but not great players, and sometimes horns are great players but pretty common, but the Buescher Tipped Bell sopranos have both of these qualities in the same horn. It was only the great depression and the consequent end of the 20’s saxophone craze that accounts for this horn’s rarity. It is the best soprano that Buescher ever made in my opinion, because of the comfortable neck angle and the tipped bell acoustics (bringing the tone more in front of you, and thus more audible after the fashion of an alto or tenor, but without the tiny profile of a fully curved soprano. This horn now is gleaming and beautiful, and it feels tight and snappy under the fingers. Original case also looks good.

True Tone sopranos are superb instruments, with a big, round, rich tone that is medium dark in the core and very flexible for different styles of playing. The intonation is very good, hence the “True Tone” model name, and tends to be a bit more slotted in and less flexible than other vintage sopranos, not that that’s a big deal if you have a good ear. For modern players who sometimes will sacrifice a good tone for better ergonomics, this would not be the horn for you, but for those who are mainly concerned about getting a great tone and who are willing to work with the vintage keywork, this would be an excellent choice. And of course, for those who love to have something rare and collectible that even folks who’ve “seen it all” have still *never* seen, this would definitely be for you.