The History of Stencil Saxophones

Stencil saxophones derive from a brief period in the early mid-twentieth century.

A stencil saxophone is any saxophone made by a major manufacturing company and then delivered to the recipient without the brand name listed on the sax. Stencil companies included Conn, Buescher, Martin, Selmer, Holton and York. As these companies grew in stature, other parent conglomerates purchased them in order to become the primary producers of saxophones. The term "stencil saxophone" derived from the fact that once a store received the unmarked saxophone from the manufacturing company, the proprietor would use a stencil to engrave the name of the store on the instrument.

Time Frame

Around the early part of the mid-twentieth century, institutions like schools and music purveyors would buy saxophones from a dominant manufacturer of musical instruments, and that manufacturer would imprint the name of the school or music store on the instrument as opposed to the name of the company. These manufacturers were also capable of forming offshoot products under a different brand name or absorbing smaller companies and making them their own. The manufacture of most stencil saxophones was before 1940.

Features

Because stencil saxophones have varying serial numbers from the parent companies that manufactured them, it is sometimes difficult to identify the manufacturer. Some ways to decipher the characteristics are to examine the G-major cluster design, the design of the key guard, the construction of the tone hole, the octave mechanism type and the key layout.

Significance

Stencil saxophones were of considerable quality and resembled the grade standards of the companies that owned the lower-level manufacturers. However, it has grown more difficult to determine the origins of these saxophones, as well as their year of manufacture.

Misconceptions

According to the Vintage Saxophone Gallery, not all stencil saxophones have the problem of elusiveness. Generally, American made stencils possess this issue in specification because the same company rarely created the instruments over the life of a particular stencil label. This discernible lack in uniformity is not present in most of the Asian and European stencils.

Considerations

For owners of stencil saxophones, it may be disappointing to learn that they are not worth a great sum of money. However, stencil saxophones are still part of musical instrument history. The process and exchange of saxophones between storefronts and instrument manufacturing companies will most likely never employ the stencil method again.

References

• The Vintage Saxophone Gallery: Stencils and Second-Line Horns
• Dr. Rick's Village Flute and Sax Shop: Stencil or Ghost Named Saxophones
• CyberSax: Stencil Saxophones