Yes! This is my baby. I bought it from my friend Peter Deley in Portland Oregon. I've been playing sax for about 15 years now and made the switch to Buescher about 2 years ago.
What took me so long? The first time I ever saw one of these I knew it was for me based on the cool engraving alone, but I went around the world first with Conns, Selmers, Martins etc. Mainly Conns. Part of it is we live in a noisy world with the internet, forums etc etc. The question gets asked frequently "what famous person played one of these?" Tough to answer. Most famous guys played Conns, Selmers, Kings and today Keilwerths and blah blah blah. That noise gets in the way of my gut, which never lies. Too much information is a bad thing it turns out, but now I feel at home with my choice of horn. If that's what it took on this journey, so be it.
I once had my uncle play this horn. He's been playing his Mk 6 Selmer since his Conn was stolen in NYC in the early 60's (no my uncle is not Dexter Gordon! People stole saxes in NYC as well as France!). After 10 minutes he said "Man I could get to love this horn, just gimme a couple weeks on these keys! It's so ORGANIC, not like my Selmer".
He went on to say how he'd never considered a Buescher cause when he was playing alot more you had to have a Selmer and the Bueschers were already considered to be a 'student' horn.
Organic is how I feel about this horn. I can sing into it. it can do whatever I need it to. it doesn't have a voice of it's own, I get to do that.
I currently use 2 mouthpieces, a recent Otto Link Super Tonemaster doctored up by Ed Zentera. This covers my rock gigs. really it can do anything but I like the rubber Link I have for my own music. Occasionally I use an old Woodwind Steelite for when i want a swing sound. Those are great pieces.
I think these horns get a bad rap. I've played many that were poorly setup, even in high class stores catering to pros. Try one in great shape and be surprised. They can be disorienting at first cause they appear small but the sound is huge when you get used to them.
They built stuff this well in the Depression, that blows me away!
This horn can do any gig. Can't say that for most other horns I've played and owned.
What were they thinking in 1936?
I like that I spend my day psyched about playing this horn. I want to get up early to go practice. A good instrument makes you wanna play, a bad one can make you wanna quit. Every day I find a new thing I can do with this horn, it challenges me. Has good resitance.
JB
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