Posts Tagged ‘German Saxophones’
A Dörfler & Jörka Information Update
Author: Helen
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might have noticed that I have devoted a fair amount of space to a relatively uncommon vintage German saxophone manufacturer. Dörfler & Jörka was located in Nauheim, and had strong ties to the Julius Keilwerth company.
When I first happened across a De Villiers tenor in February 2009, I had no idea what I had stumbled upon. Nor did I know that this lowly De Villiers would end up becoming the catalyst in a drive for information that ultimately would see the Dörfler & Jörka company’s history being researched and recorded for the first time.
Over the last number of months I have worked with Uwe Ladwig. Uwe is a saxophonist, repair tech, historian, and writer for the German music journal Sonic: sax & brass. A few months ago he got a D&J-stencilled Impala into his shop. This was a stencil name that had been until now unknown to us.
Shortly after that sax was on his work bench, he asked if I could send him the photos of my De Villers. He had decided to write his next article for Sonic on this rather obscure German saxophone manufacturer.
After carefully researching Dörfler & Jörka’s (D&J) history, he wrote an article which was published in the September/October issue of Sonic. Uwe was kind enough to send me his research, and has given me permission to use it on my site.
Yesterday I spent the day updating the Dörfler & Jörka page on the main portion of my website.
What Uwe discovered fundamentally changes what we know about the saxophones that D&J produced, and his information is now included on my site.
Here are a few of the most salient points:
- D&J was very connected to, and interconnected with, the J. Keilwerth company.
- Like the Keilwerth company, D&J’s history is somewhat convoluted and complex.
- D&J produced their own saxophones, and never used Keilwerth body tubes.
- D&J horns are not Keilwerth stencil saxophones. For the most part, they are copies of J. Keilwerth horns.
If you are looking for information about the Dörfler & Jörka company, I suggest you take a look at the newly updated D&J page on my site. I think you might be surprised at what you read.
© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.
A Dörfler & Jörka Impala Tenor Up For Auction
Author: Helen
A few weeks ago German sax tech Uwe Ladwig informed me that he had stumbled across yet another stencil name for Dörfler & Jörka saxophones. Like the brand name Corvair, this sax too shared its name with an American car: Impala.
This morning I was checking out the German eBay site and I happened to come across one of these D&J-made Impala saxophones. This silver plated tenor is in desperate need of an overhaul, and has clearly not been played for quite some time.
Source: eBay.de
The seller describes the sax like this:
(I’ll give you the original German because it’s short, and then the translated version)
TENOR SAXOPHON IMPALA
Marke: “IMPALA”
gemarkt: Nr. 16376 – Made in Western Gemany
L. 83cm
ohne Koffer
ungeprüft und mit Spuren der Zeit, müsste überholt und hergerichtet werden, ansonst ordentlicher original Zustand
The translated version goes like this:
Tenor Saxophone Impala
Brand Name: “Impala”
Marked: No. 16376 – Made in Western German.
83 cm Long
No Case
Has not been tested, and shows its age. It will need an overhaul, but otherwise decent original condition.
Source: eBay.de
Source: eBay.de
I don’t imagine that green growth like this would be on the keys if the sax was being played regularly. 
Source: eBay.de
Source: eBay.de
The decorative pearl is missing on the low C key guard.
Source: eBay.de
I wonder why the stamping Made In Western Germany is so worn looking. Even the numbers look a bit hinky.
Although admittedly the stamping on the back of my lacquered D&J De Villiers isn’t fabulous either, which had lead to someone who only had seen the pictures on-line to speculate that the horn might be a relac. It isn’t.
Since then I’ve noticed this to be a pattern on other D&J horns. Here is the stamping on an Artist #300 alto, on a Clinton alto, a René Dumont Tenor, and finally on a Voss Tenor.
The engraving on this Impala appears to be original—as it does on all the saxes from my D&J Gallery that I’ve linked to above—so perhaps the flaw lies in however D&J applied the stamping on the back of their body tubes.
Source: eBay.de
Source: eBay.de
This is quite possibly the original ligature and cap—and perhaps even mouthpiece—that came with the horn. A Roxy alto that sold on eBay in October ‘09 had the same cap and lig. It came with its original accessories.
Source: eBay.de
The original D&J neck tightening screw has been replaced at some point in time. The round thumb screw is gone, and a conventional one is now in its place.
Source: eBay.de
The private auction for this Dörfler & Jörka Impala Tenor runs until August 26. At the time of writing there were 33 bids on the horn, with the high bid being €181.00. XE.com tells me that that’s $229.40 US at this precise moment in time.
© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.
Who The Heck Is G.H. Hüller?
Author: Helen
If you’ve found yourself asking this very question while looking at vintage horn ads on eBay, or perhaps while perusing the pages of your favourite on-line vintage horn dealer’s website, well you’re in luck. Yesterday I uploaded a G.H. Hüller information page and gallery to the main portion of my site.
Source: eBay.at
G.H. Hüller was a German saxophone manufacturer who began making saxophones in the 1920s. They continued production for a number of years before becoming nationalized.
Their instruments were typical of German saxophones of the era, yet were also strangely ahead of their time. Some of their early models also featured a D resonance key which was similar to those found on Holton’s Rudy Wiedoeft models.
Here is a photo of this D resonance key on an early model alto.
Source: woodwinds-and-brass.de
To see what makes this sax so interesting, check out the photos and its description in the gallery.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the subsequent reunification of Germany, the G.H. Hüller name—the company itself had long already been a part of the company that manufactured the B&S Blue Label saxophones—was dropped by the new B&S/VMI.
The information contained on my main site’s G.H. Hüller information page would not have been possible without the research efforts of Uwe Ladwig. Uwe is, among other things, a saxophone historian and writer for the German music journal SONIC sax & brass.
Uwe has generously shared his research with me, and I am slowly in the process of making it accessible for English audiences.
© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.
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