
This horn has considerably better intonation than the Holton-made version, but is still very hit-or-miss in general - in other words, the horn the Perfect Curved was patterned after, the HN White King Saxello, is a much better horn, but the Perfect Curved soprano is worth more (around $3500 US).įor more information on these horns and Lyon and Healy, take a peek at the Vintage Saxophones Revisited columns in the May/June 1989 and the November/December 1997 editions of The Saxophone Journal magazine. These horns were produced in two "series": the first was a unique looking but "totally unplayable" version made by Holton that featured a detachable bell (and is currently so rare as to be non-existant) and the second is the model shown here made by Martin. The Perfect Curved soprano was designed by Lyon and Healy and sold (primarily) under their Artist brand name. Lyon and Healy DID make some of their own horns in the early 1900's, including saxophones, but they couldn't really compete with the big names, so they decided to stencil some horns, but a little differently: they decided to DESIGN some of their own horns and have other companies make them.
Martin saxophone serial numbers pro#
The orange labels inside hollow bodied instruments were discontinued in 1970 and replaced by white and orange rectangle labels on the acoustics and small black, purple and white rectangle labels were used on electric models.Stencils are generally variations on the major manufacturer's pro horns, but lack certian features (for example, Conn stencils lack rolled tone holes), were made with older tooling (for example, Buescher Elkharts were made with the Buescher True Tone tooling - which was rendered obsolete about 10 years earlier), or suffered from poor quality control. There are many exceptions and sometimes letter prefixes were used. This would also explain why the occasional pre-1932 Martin guitar appears with a decal.įrom 1970-1975 all numbers were stamped into wood and assigned a six digit number. This implies that a number of ukuleles built in 1930 remained in the factory until being sold in 1932. Interestingly, the original order for Martin decals was placed in June of 1932. The Martin logo decal on the front of the headstock. The Martin brand stamped on the back of the headstock.
Martin saxophone serial numbers serial numbers#
Ukuleles did not carry serial numbers but can be roughly identified and dated by the headstock: 1895 to 1932 Fortunately, they are often signed by the builder. Many of these unique instruments pop-up today and don’t fit any clear category. Ukuleles, taropatches, tiples and Hawaiian guitars were introducedĪfter workers at the Nazareth factory had been employed for a period of years they were permitted to fashion an instrument for themselves at the plant. Some pre-1898 guitars have the date penciled on the top just inside the sound hole.īefore 1929, the model size and style designation was generally written on a paper label and glued inside the top of the instrument case. Model numbers were marked on the neck block, inside the body. Zoebisch & Sons” (Zoebisch was the sole distributor of Martin at the time). The original instruments had a paper label that read: “Martin and Coupa” 1833 to 1867 Prior to serial numbers, the different instruments were identified by the Martin brand which was stamped into the back of the headstock, the upper portion of the back or on the back binding strut visible through the soundhole (the eased blocking reinforcing the center joint between the 2 back pieces). Martin began producing instruments in 1833.
