When I first saw this sax on eBay, I had to check it a couple of times to make sure that I was indeed seeing a Hammerschmidt stencil horn. The photos were very small, and the seller had written that the sax was made in the U.S. I even emailed the seller to confirm a country of origin, and he insisted that it came from the States.

The eBay ad itself provided no real information about the sax, other than to say it had a U.S. patent number, but didn’t give it. The serial number is 06XX.

This alto does have enough features of a Hammerschmidt however, that it is easily identifiable:

  • The ridging on the underside of the neck that acts as the neck guard;
  • The shape of the low B, Bb, & C key guards, and the way the decorative circles in the centre of them do not line up with the felt bumpers on the keys;
  • The shape of the left pinkie table;
  • The rolled tone holes;
  • The shape and location of the G# trill key and;
  • The shape & location of the chromatic F# key.
  Source: eBay.com