SPECIAL
PERFECT
E. BEAUGNIER
MANTES PRES
PARIS

This silver-plated, made in France Saxophone has:

    - All new Feree’s rivet pads.
    - All new corks and felts.
    - Adjusted and regulated
    - Silver-plate at maybe 75%? Keys missing a lot of silver. Many fingertouches have all silver worn off. There is a thin stripe of missing silver-plate across the engraving...not a scratch...not sure how that may have happened. (A correspondent writes: "am pretty sure that at a certain time one sping was broken or mis-adjusted, and then the owner had a rubber band wrapped around the bell, to give the key the right action. Then the saxophone had been resting in its case, and voila, next time it was taken out to be played the rubber has etched the silver away........") Clothes guard missing all silver at touch point. Neck missing a lot of silver.
    - It was missing the Low B keyguard on the bell, so I made a new one. It is lacquered brass, not silver-plated. And there is no doubt that it is handmade when you take a moment to look at it. Some of the keyguard screws are replacements, consequently they are brass and not silver-plated.
    - The decorative mother-of-pearl inserts were missing from the four keyguards that should have them. I had Burnie's Rock Shop here in Madison cut four pieces of lapis lazuli (blue stone) to take their place. IMHO I think they look very striking against the silver.
    - The case says Couesnon on it. But really the case is cheap and flimsy. It'll do to ship the horn if packed with a lot of cushioning, but it would be no good for carrying the horn around day by day. Best to pitch it I say.
    - Nice fast key action. I had no trouble hitting the low notes when I tested it. There is a little key noise and the stack keys bounce a little when they are relased, but keys are pretty tight. Seems like this horn has been played a lot over the decades. You can see the wear under the thumbhook.
    - There are very minor dents here and there...some are barely ripples. Bell and bow and body and neck are really in good shape.

August 2008 - A young tenor-player from New York came in and kindly test-played a bunch of my tenors.
Here's what he had to say about the Special Perfect:
-- Projects really well, without being bright, focused and pure...
-- Excellent ballad horn...
-- Very expressive...
-- Pure, with lots of fundamental

Picture one. You can see 3 of the lapis lazuli inserts and the keyguard I fabricated.