Buescher Tipped Bell Soprano Fresh Overhaul Rare and Fantastic! 193407

This is an original silver plate Buescher tipped bell soprano that just got a full overhaul done by Aaron Barnard of Barnard Repair in Cedar Rapids IA. Aaron is great at vintage and rare saxophone restorations. He used Pisoni italian leather pads and slightly domed reusable metal resonators. The silver is in great shape. There were some dents removed as part of the overhaul, and the neck needed to be extended slightly to get restored back to original spec. You can’t tell because it’s under the cork, but it’s about 3/8″ of new brass under there to make it the correct length that it originally was. With the neck correct, this horn tunes beautifully and plays really well. I think I have an original Buescher soprano mouthpiece that you could get with it, or there are many other mouthpieces that work great with these, as they are not very mouthpiece picky. The 190-195k range is a sweet spot for Buescher sopranos, and the best ones I’ve played have often been in that range. That’s why I wanted to buy this and put the money into the full restoration. I’m not really making much on it at this price, but it’s worth it to keep one of the rarest and best vintage sopranos ever made still in top playing condition. It now has a new lease on life and can play for the next 90 years for its new owner.

The point of the tipped bell and bent neck is that you get to have the horn hang on your neckstrap instead of your having to push it out from your body with your right thumb all the time. That’s a vast ergonomic improvement over a fully straight soprano. The tipped bell points the sound out in front of you a bit so you can hear yourself a little better than without. These would probably have become the standard soprano saxophone design moving forward, if the Great Depression had not killed the ‘saxophone craze’ that was allowing Buescher and Conn the leeway to develop cool new models.

It’s rare that you can get a saxophone that is both the best available version of something, and the rarest version, and that also has the best tone, but that’s what this is! If you want a big, warm, gorgeous, Sidney Bechet style tone, excellent intonation, and excellent ergonomics, that’s what you get. The overhaul means that your maintenance issues should be minimal and not very different from a boring modern soprano.

Only one available!