Very Rare Hammerschmidt Alto Saxophone...

Dari “The Bassic Sax Blog” saya membaca informasi tentang “Very Rare Hammerschmidt Alto On German eBay” , yaitu sebuah alto saxophone merek Josef Hammerschmidt & Sons, yang dijual di Höchst, Germany. Dikatakan di situ bahwa:

The horn, besides being in amazing condition, looks quite unusual. The octave key assembly is interesting. The thumb rest is the Hammerschmidt moon-shaped one, but the key is shaped quite differently, almost tear-dropped. The wish-bone shaped mechanism however, is typical.

The horn has a very sturdy build, and has rolled tone holes.The sax is very comfortable in the hands. It carries the serial number 032, and was built in 1952, according to the instrument maker that the seller spoke with. This horn represents an extremely rare variety of model, which was only produced in very small numbers.

The artistic keyguards & the interesting octave key assembly are 2 of the features which make this such an usual & rare design.

Dari sumber lain didapat keterangan mengenai riwayat perusahaan Hammerschmidt sbb:

Martin Hammerschmidt started producing clarinets in 1873 in Egerland (now part of the Czech Republic) until 1910 when his son Karl took over the company. Later, in 1934, Karl's 6 sons, all of whom were instrument makers, carried on until the end of the war when they were forced to return to Germany. Here they re-established the company and between approximately 1950 and 1980 also produced alto and tenor saxophones.

The Hammerschmidt company manufactured their saxophones in Burgau, in what was then West Germany. Hammerschmidt sold their saxophones under the trademark name of Klingsor, but only made its own altos and tenors. The Klingsor sopranos and baritones were actually stencils for Hammerschmidt made by J. Keilwerth.

The first saxophones were much influenced by the Buescher and Conn models of the time, but later the lower keys were transferred to the right side of the bell and clear plastic protectors were added, similar to the 1950's style made popular by Keilwerth and the Conn Constellation. Some models were made with metal key protectors.

Some of the instruments were covered with mother of pearl insets on the palm keys, the left pinky cluster, low E-flat/C, all the trill keys including the rarely seen top E-flat trill, the low E-flat and G-sharp trills and the octave key system. There were also engraving details over the whole instrument and on the bell was a picture of a blacksmith banging on an anvil with a hammer and notes flying through the air. The instruments were solidly made, heavy and coupled with accurate rolled tone holes, and gave a fat but edgy sound.

As the influence of cheaper imports from the Far East made their mark on European musical instrument production, the Hammerschmidt company tried to reduce costs by simplifying their designs and by eliminating many of the expensive details. But in 1982, the production of saxophones eventually came to an end with an estimated 5,000 instruments completed.

Hammerschmidt saxophones are hard to find these days, especially the top of the line models, and thus are sought after by (mostly) European instrument collectors.

The Hammerschmidt company still exists today, but now only manufactuers clarinets.

Gambar2 yang terpajang ini adalah gambar saxophone alto yang katanya unik dan langka yang akan dilelang di Jerman itu…

Dan…., percaya atau tidak, semalam saya bagai ketiban durian. Tak disangka tak diduga, sebuah saxophone tenor merek “KLINGSOR” nomor seri 090 dibawa oleh seseorang ke rumah. Jadilah kini sax tenor nan unik dan langka itu masuk di dalam daftar koleksi.

Sedikit berbeda dengan saxophone alto yang dikisahkan di atas, yang tone hole nya ber model roller seperti model tone hole saxophone Conn, sax tenor Klingsor buatan Hammerschmidt yang kini jadi koleksi pribadi Tina Saxophone Music Gallery ini tone holenya bermodel bevel alias dikerat seperti model tone hole saxophone merek Martin.

Foto2 saxophone tenor Klingsor akan segera terbit di judul artikel berikutnya. Sabar ya...