Noblet Alto Sax

S/N 89xx (Doctor Sax stock #1042)

The pictures are below

Genuine French-made alto!

Profile of face on brace and neck. It's either Denis Noblet or Maurice Chevalier or ...?

Bell keys on the right.

Adjustment screws on the F# - G# adjustment arm.

This sax was made in the Beaugnier factory. Right-hand bell keys.

This is a lovely-looking horn...the body is almost all bare brass. I'm pretty sure it was not buffed though. I think a lot of these older Noblet horns used a cellulose-based lacquer which comes off pretty easy. With one Noblet I had, a 'Standard', I completely removed the lacquer using just very hot tap water. With the bright silvery nickel-plated keys and bare brass body, this is a lovely horn. Almost the opposite effect of this Wurlitzer (Martin stencil) alto that has brass keys and a silver-plate body.

Very nice playing...think twice before spending the money to buy a Taiwan-built horn.

Regulated and adjusted...ready to play.

Neck is in good shape...not pulled down or bent out of shape. The neck cork is a little 'fat'...my mouthpiece fit pretty tight on it, but I am leaving it that way...certainly easier to sand a little cork off vs. the opposite.

Check out the right hand pinkie cluster...evidently 3 rollers were not enough so they added a fourth, metal, roller...just to make life a little easier moving from low C# to Bb.

Signs of solder work on top post of G key, bell brace and possibly elsewhere. All looks solid.

Missing pant guard behind lower stack. See pictures.

August 13, 2007 - I had this Noblet out, testplaying, noticed the pant guard was missing and so I made one.
You'd be surprised how hard it is to get that slight curve to the guard.
The last three pictures below are new, showing the guard. First pictures with my Nikon digital camera.
All told, it took me at least two hours to make it, bend it, drill the holes, find the screws. That's a $60 guard. But no, I won't increase the price of the horn. Just my attempt to make it better than the way it came to me.

All new flat metal resonator pads...all new corks and felts. Regulated and adjusted.
Feb. 16th, 2007 - I tried playing this a couple days ago. The Low D seemed a little stuffy. I increased the height of the low C which helped. I also increased the height of the bell keys, which meant I had to re-adjust the plateau key-touches.
Also, as I noted above, the neck cork was a little 'fat', so I sanded it down some. I was playing a little flat and was having trouble pushing my mouthpiece (Selmer C**) on far enough to remedy that. Now it is easier to do so. If you want to use some skinny little metal mouthpiece it might need to be sanded down further.

  SOLD! July 2008

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