B&S Blue Label Tenor serial number ?

[VesaL]

Thank you Tobi!
I don’t play by myself but I have fun listening when wife and kids play. It’s great to know that I have bought a good instrument. I was little bit unsure because it was pretty cheap and I had no experience at all and I could find so little information about B&S saxophones.

Vesa

[danicode]

Guten Tag an alle Mitglieder,

mein Name ist Daniel, ich komme aus Portugal und bin leidenschaftlicher Saxophonspieler.
Vor kurzem habe ich ein Tenorsaxophon der Marke B&S erworben, das sich leider in einem sehr schlechten Zustand befindet.
Ich möchte es restaurieren und suche deshalb so viele Informationen wie möglich über dieses Instrument.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... drive_link

Die Seriennummer ist: 2965.
Könnte mir bitte jemand sagen, in welchem Jahr es gebaut wurde und eventuell weitere technische Details zu diesem Modell mitteilen?
Jede Information – auch Fotos oder Katalogausschnitte – wäre für mich sehr wertvoll.



Vielen Dank im Voraus für Ihre Hilfe!
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Daniel

[lfsax]

Hello saxophone lovers,
I own a B&S alto saxophone numbered 5311, which I believe to be from the early 1980s.
Could you please confirm the approximate year of manufacture for this model?
Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,

[tobi]

Hello lfsax,

the alto with SN 5311 was either built during second half of 1990 or during first half 1991.

Regards,
Tobi.

[tobi]

I checked it again:

SN 5311 should be more likely from the second half of 1990!

Regards, Tobi

[lfsax]

Hello Tobi and thank you for your answer.

Second half of 1990, is this compatible with the "made in GDR" inscription ?

Thank you in advance.

[tobi]

Second half of 1990, is this compatible with the "made in GDR" inscription ?

Yes, for the Altos, the engraving changed towards "Made in Germany" somewhen during the first half of 1991. Not before.

Regards, Tobi.

[lfsax]

Thank you for your answer.

Have a nice day.

[kumarbr]

Ok - the following was said by B&S:

"
Optimization of tonal parameters such as tuning, response, intonation and improvement of the fingering. On the tenor, changes were made to the scale (Mensur) in order to achieve an optimum sound radiation. I.e. a modification of bell diameter and angle. In addition, the tone holes were changed in size and position to ensure first-class tuning. Furthermore, a different bow and an optimization of the grip sections.
"

By the way - all this was done in order to even improve a horn, which was already excellent! In reality, the live result was there, but it was definitely not a big step forward. Is there any other comment from anybody, who owns both model lines with the same plating / configuration?

... you are welcome ...

It seems like these changes were mainly fine adjustments to an already very good horn, not a major redesign, which probably explains why the difference feels fairly small. I’d be curious to hear from anyone who has actually played both models in the same setup and can share how noticeable the changes are in real use.