King Super 20 Alto Full Pearls 1952 Fresh Overhaul 328xxx Outstanding

ON HOLD SEPT 2020

King altos are the best altos ever, full stop.

This one has original lacquer and looks good in a played in way, with the only past repair being a resoldered low C key guard. It just got a full, fresh, high-end overhaul, done by the highly-skilled Jan Olsen (Norway). This means it got many hours of painstaking labor done to make the mechanism all factory fresh, and to replace everything that can be replaced so that it is back to new playing condition and pad wise. It now performs great and will be ready to go for many many years to come with only regular maintenance needed.

This King Super 20 alto is from just about the most desirable year, 1952, which is the same version and serial of Super 20 that Cannonball Adderley played on Kind of Blue and Somethin’ Else. It is in great shape, with no serious past repairs at all.  This is the ‘Series II’ which has the best combination of beauty, features, and key work of all of the Super 20 altos. You really can get the Cannonball Adderley vibe going on one of these (with lots of practice) better than almost anything else. Cannonball played almost exactly this serial alto on Kind of Blue.

Why do I say that Super 20’s like this are the best altos ever? The overall combination of tone, beauty, and ergonomics. For me, great tone that you get from these full pearls Super 20’s is pretty hard to beat. It’s warm, full, rich, and projecting, but without any hint of shrillness or thinness. Cannonball’s tone, I always think of as a tenor saxophone reincarnated in the body of an alto, and that’s pretty much what a Super 20 alto like this allows. It feels like the tone is coming from a bigger, deeper instrument, but in the alto register, which is really remarkable. You can of course do a million other things with it. Check Francois Carrier’s music for another take on Super 20 tone (also same serial as this). The Super 20 is going to keep getting more and more desirable, and harder and harder to find. They’re just fantastic, and they are way rarer than Mark VI’s or any other top notch vintage or modern alto.

This horn is priced to MOVE. Once you figure in the overhaul, it’s absurdly cheap. Particularly for the tone you get. Someone should grab it now and not look back. You never need to ‘upgrade’ from this. If you don’t love it, send it back. I take returns.

Just for fun, here’s Cannonball on his Series II Super 20 playing one of his classic ballads, Dancin’ in the Dark.