1961 Keilwerth 'Tone King' Alto
Originally from Sarge's Collection!
Price: SOLD
- Year: 1961
- Make: Keilwerth
- Model: Tone King
- Status: SOLD
- Finish: Original
- Serial Number: 42,663
(On Consignment - Plays great)
Original silver finish Tone King alto. Excellent German build and JK lineage. It currently has tan pads with plastic resonators on it, markings and the plastic pants guard is intact as well as the bell guard! It has the rare high F# key in the Keilwerth designed location too(next to the high E lever). The neck is faded Gold plate that matches the bell (faded) gold color, and has the matching serial number as the body. I can't recall any history about this plating with Sarge. Unfortunately that's a mystery to me.
The short story is that this was sold to a good customer and he enjoyed it for a few years and has decided to let it pass through WWS once again to find the loving home. It was in Sarge's private collection for years as 1 of the 3 Altos (he had about 30 tenors though...!) that I can remember him stashing when I met him - 2 of which were Keilwerth altos.
The Keilwerth altos can sometimes play a little brighter than the reputation from their tenor counterparts would suggest by comparison. They are still "vintage" and "sweet", but consider these to have some upper treble 'cut' in their skills. I will follow up on this description because this generalization is one that I might put on the earlier era.
CASE: yes. A Protec molded wrap case from about 10-20 years ago design. They have the hard shell, lots of storage, and rings for carrying straps.
PADS: Tan with plastic resonators.
BONUS: This sale includes a Meyer 5M rubber alto sax mouthpiece.
Sarge's old description on it:
"Julius Keilwerth "Tone King" Alto: by my own chart, i figure this one to be a 1961 model. The bell has some engraving... the word FULDA is on it in block letters (Fulda is a city in west Germany a little north of Frankfurt), and also what i think is someone's name, obviously applied at the factory. It's really difficult to get any info from the "golden age" there's just nobody left at the factory, that knows anything about those times and the people that are there that answer questions just do their best (speculate)... It has a lot of features borrowed from other great horns of the past, like rolled tone holes, a tone ring under the bell lip, tightening thumbscrew for the neck... but their own innovations were very cool too, like the high F# key position, the Lucite bell key guard. I have the original "JK Tone King" hard rubber mouthpiece, as made for Keilwerth by Wagner. It's a superb sounding alto, although with many mouthpieces, it plays sharp in the high range. Finally, i get many, many questions on how to i.d. a Keilwerth... this is for sure, if it has "made in Germany" and the JK logo, as seen at the left, it definitely is a JK."
It's a rare sax ... in excellent condition, ready to enjoy.
Sound Files Coming soon...
Item #:WWSConTT1W7.0W1.08052.0-C15
