More on the Holton Revelation tenor saxophone

So I've finally gotten to put this old Holton tenor through some paces. I want to share some impressions as there is a bit of interest in these horns and talk of the price possibly rising.

If you read this, don't worry about all that. These are great bargain horns. There is a reason why some old horns sell for the money they sell for. It's easy to resent the unobtanium, but it's easy to just get on with it and find something you love and play the heck out of it.

That being said, I like my Holton, I don't love it. I love my Buescher Aristocrat from '36 and on some days I love my Conn 10M, also from '36.

I don't really like to write in the "This vs. That" vein, but this may be useful to some who are interested.

Now, there was one of these that sold last year for around $725. You've probably already found the old listing if you happen to be doing a web search on a Holton Revelation tenor. In it the seller says something about his friend the player trying it and comparing it to the legendary Selmer Mk6 and saying it it's comparable in terms of tone and power. Please, don't buy into that. Maybe it's true to the person who wrote it and played it. I'm not a Selmer player but I have played some that made me go "well, if cost were no object, this would be mine!" or "Oh, I get it." I've played plenty that made me just go "meh, whatever" as well. But even those are, well, a step up, a big ass step up from the Holton.

The next is "the poor mans Conn".... No, that's called the Pan American. Those can be really good. And this horn is far different than any Conn I've ever played or owned, and Conn is the horn I've spent the most time on. Different sound altogether, brighter, wider, in some ways richer.

The next one you may have read it "tinny sound and sketchy intonation at best". That one came from an administrator at Sax on the Web apparently.

Let me answer to that. If all I did was spend a few minutes on this horn I would have come to the same conclusion. It is difficult being we are on the wrong side of the horn to really hear ourselves. Some horns I can hear myself better on than others. My Buescher is great that way. Good sense of the note. My Conn, not as good. When I had a Selmer from 1930 that was the only thing that kept me from selling it, great 'sense of the note'. This horn it's difficult to tell how I'm projecting.

Why is that? I don't really know. What I have experienced is this: it's a brighter horn, by far. It reminds me of a Cleveland tenor I once had for a minute, a 30's model. Bright and raunchy. Though this horn blows much better in tune than any King I've played. While I'm not a fan of bright horns in general, I can see this horn having it's place in the studio. The King I had I just couldn't blow in tune, but the sound I got for some nasty section stuff was unbeatable. This covers that base.

I'm not going to get all technical on you, I'll just keep a couple little things that I see. The neck socket is smaller than my Conn or Buescher. Those 2 are interchangeable and about 28.4mm in diameter. The Holton is 28mm. I had a later Collegiate that was wider than my Conn or Buescher! A lot wider. For me difficult to focus that horn.

Also the palm key tone holes are BIG on the Holton. Considerably wider than on my Conn or Buescher. I gotta say, the high end is my favorite part on the Revelation. It has a openness and a complexity upstairs my Conn lacks, and the Buescher can get, believe it or not, a little too rich up there for me! But I'm not complaining. Point being, I feel like I can get lazy with my airstream on the Conn, the Buescher is more demanding of my attention and I can push the core around to my liking. On the Holton with my Early Babbit Super Tone Master piece if I'm lazy what I get is the tin can alley. Not good. But after playing it for an hour I settled in and found if I'm focused and am playing with a really open throat, I get a full sound. It seems this horn just needs me to play with more support. It's just a different experience to fill it up than my other 2. I can't be lazy with this horn. Not a bad thing but not the best for me as some days I like my lazy.

You'll also read about Holton's clunktastic key work. If you are used to old American horns, this model is pretty damned good. Not as fast as my Conn but faster than my Buescher.

Now with any horn some times it's a matter of matching it to the right mouthpiece. I have 2 pieces, my Otto Link metal and an old Brilhart Hard Rubber piece opened up by my man Sakshama up in Queens. The Link is my go to piece. Never selling it. And it's cured my need to seek. When a piece simply solves a problem you may have struggled with for a decade, find the money. It was worth the chunk of change I forked over for it. The Brilhart I go back and forth on. Great player but I'm not 100% stoked on the sound I get, especially on my beloved Buescher. It's very 50's Sonny Rollins. Now, before you laser beam me off the map, Sonny is one of my absolute heroes, and I love his sound especially from that era. It's just such a big ass sound, not what I'm going for. Funny thing is I spent years working towards that, now I'm moving towards my own bag....

So the Brilhart on my Buescher is not my favorite. But I put it on the Holton and it's instant love. Great big, clear, rich tone. It can get too bright and a bit stuffy on my Buescher, on this horn it's the ticket to Hollywood. So if I keep the horn I'll keep that piece. It's a fantastic match.

THE BELL TEST:

My old teacher, W.C. Cage in Portland Oregon used to do this thing whenever I would bring him a new horn. He would tap the bell and compare it to his 10M that he played since the 40's. His horn being tapped was dead. "That's how you can tell a good horn!" he would say, "that metal".  He would tap a horn of mine and you'd hear 'clang, clang, ring' and he'd say to me "dump it!" Oh that used to make me mad. "A good horn has that deadness to the tap".

Now, you're going to get some kind of ring to it, but my Conn and Bueshcer are pretty dead in that department. The Holton rings much louder. The Conn and Buescher make a Bb, the Holton a C. Maybe that's what he meant. Maybe that's what he was listening for? Maybe that's all jive and now in my head. I do know this: the first good horn I had was an old Martin Handcraft. It was dead and a Dodo. He said "You got yourself a good horn!" No brand snobbery, it was a 1930 split bell Handcraft I sold to a friend later on. And yes, Mr Cage was right. That was a really good horn. Just had a great sound and felt solid. The brighter horns I've played and owned don't tend to pass the bell test. Doesn't make them a bad horn, it just makes them not as likable by me.

But like I said, this may be the perfect horn for some recordings I do where I need to sound more raunchy than I do on my other horns. I think this horn gets nastier than my Buescher, and I thought that wasn't possible!

So the only other thing I haven't done yet is use it with my band or on a gig. I'm not sure I trust it enough yet. When my drummer changes a drum head, it can change the way the band sounds. A horn can do that too and it's all about the group sound to me. And like I said, I don't know how it projects. We play acoustically and we can get pretty crazy so I need to be able to get over the top. I do intend to re-pad this horn and my guess is the guts will come out better with that. But bright horns and me are not the best match. Same with bright guitars and amps, that lower mid is important. (funny thing, playing this horn quietly it's all mid heaven, loud is where it brightens up).

So like I said, this is a cool horn. If you are curious about one, I hope this helps. These are very hard to find so if you do buy one, buy it knowing if it needs work you're not going to make any dough flipping it, that is if you don't dig it. It's no Selmer, it's no Conn. If you want a Selmer, save your money and buy one (I can finally afford one myself but would rather put a down on a house and take a vacation! If I can save.......then.......). If you want a Conn, buy a Conn. If you want something different and away from the rest, give one of these a go.

Oh, and some demos:

With Metal Link....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyu1yBG4fCs



With Rubber Brilhart......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd2S5slUEqI&t=58s

Enjoy! JB

Holton 213 Revelation tenor saxophone. Cool American Depression era horn!

Ok, Nerding out on the gear stuff. What can I say? It's a fun thing to do therefore a good thing. Maybe someone curious about these rare gems can decide a bit more clearly if they want to try one out or not by reading this little article.

So first off, what is the purpose of a "B" horn, or backup horn? Well, my "A" horn, which is my well loved '36 Buescher Aristocrat, is in the shop at KB Sax getting a tuneup. It has some leaks and I want to take the best care of it as possible. I hate being without that horn. It inspires me to have ideas whenever I pick it up. Bueschers in general do that, something about the sound makes me hear things and reach for them. But alas, I need the work done and I'm without it.

Those aren't expensive horns. I could buy another one easily but, I can't deal with 2 of the same. Why bother? They would still behave differently and it would create still more confusion.

I had 2 Elkharts from that same era in the last 2 years. Both were great and just similar enough with that small bell flare and nice sound. Not as rich but still nice. Stencil horns can be like that...

And the last 2 pics are of the Elkhart necks: The silver one was wonderfully modern with that comfortable upturned thing going on. The other was your classic Elkhart/Bundy/Buescher stencil. Both were original to the horns, a lot of experimenting at the Elkhart plant apparently.....

The trouble with these Elkhart horns is... well, in a pinch when I need the money, is they sell so easily. Best horn I can ask $800 for period. We're talking about the small bell ones from the 30's, not the later ones. These early ones had nice heavy brass and a better sound. Sold the first one to a great player who needed it for his jump blues gig, the second to another great player who was vintage curious and played on a Yamaha for 20 years.

So a "B" horn should for me be closer in tone to my "A" horn, but one that I can lose my ass on if I sell it? Sounds like a plan mate!

I do have a Conn 10M that is really good. But it's what I call a more "cold toned" horn. It's brash and big, loud as can be and of course can ballad it out beautifully, but the Buescher is just a "Warm toned" horn. 10M is a black and white photo, Buescher is a Cyanotype or Sepia photo. I love my 10M in a section on a mic, but I can hear my Buescher better and I love the way it barks to the back of the room.

So let me introduce to you a horn that is worth no money..... the Holton 213 Revelation:

This was Holton's flagship in 1937. Not much information is available on these gems as they made so few and garnered so little respect it seems. My first saxophone was a Holton Collegiate I bought from a friend for $200. It was a great place to start. There is a record with me playing on it out there, couldn't play well then but the tone I got was pretty damn good.

This tenor popped into my life this week on the cheap. It needs work but plays down to Bb well enough. My initial impressions were this: Nice sound but, oh effing no, right about A2 everything goes wicked sharp. Holton and their reputation for poor intonation and I just lost money on a wall hanger. Idiot!

But then I fixed the octave mechanism (upper stack rod needed cleaning and oiling plus one weak spring) and adjusted the funny tuner neck:

Where the tuner thing meets the neck, everything is skinnier than average. I backed off that bit and voila..... pitch locks right in. Now I can give it a real go.

Gotta say, while I don't think this horn has the power of my other 2, I really find the tone immediately likable. It's so warm. Probably warmer than my Buescher. Definitely sepia toned! My Buescher is more Cyan. This horn just has a beautiful voice. What does it remind me of? Immediate West Coast Cool. I want to play Prez, Giuffre, Getz..... What horn does it remind me of the most? I had a Selmer Super Sax from 1930 that sounded very much like this one. It had this pretty high end to it, great mids. This one is much like that horn but with better pitch and a bigger low end. I sold that horn to the chagrin of my band (they loved it, I didn't) cause I couldn't lock in that low end tuning and I'm addicted to the American bottom. This horn so far has both.

This one will be a project for me to learn how to re-pad a horn. It needs it. It's a decent candidate partly cause it has those brazed on tone holes which appear to be more level than most. And there is no body damage.

So what about Holton's key work? I almost bought a Holton Baritone from the 20's last year cause it was cheap, in tune (believe it or not!) and had a huge, belligerent tone when pushed and a beautiful voice when sub-toned. That would have set me back $550 case and all. But the key work was effing awful. No, I mean really bad. I can't imagine them selling any. Our hands haven't evolved at all in thousands of years. How did they mess that up so badly????

But by this point they got it together. It feels just as good/bad as any American horn. It's more fluid than my Buescher, my 10M is just plain fast. Like I said, the octave key is goofy but we'll see if that can be sorted out. I think it can.

The low Eb and C keys have a nice angle to them, something Buescher didn't get to for another few years and Conn never got to. The right hand is really comfortable.

The G# cluster is much like a Conn New Wonder series 1 from 1921 or so. Nothing offensive. I work better with these types of clusters. G# is not articulated, which I like too. The palm keys are far better than either my Conn or Buescher. They nailed that! No need for risers!!!!

And I love the design of the key guards. Classy high ball styling!

The engraving is lovely. And odd. A carry over from the Jazz Age, more Art Nouveau, less Art Deco:

Where this horn wins it beauty. This is the prettiest horn I think I've ever seen and it may be one of the prettiest horns I've ever heard. The lacquer has a gorgeous copper color to it. The keys appear to be silver plated but with a thin coat of the same lacquer over it, thin enough so that it's see through creating a striking presence. It's hard to tell if that is the color of the lacquer or whether that's the color of the metal. The neck has lost most of it's lacquer revealing the metal which shows it to have a high copper content. Very red brass.

I won't know how it sits with a band until I try it with the group, but that'll have to wait until it's fixed up and my Buescher is back in the shop.

People have referred these as a "Poor man's Conn". No. I don't buy that. And, Conn's aren't expensive at all, not even a good one if you don't need a pretty one. This horn does not have that big Conn sound, it has it's own unique thing going on that is worthy of a try if you like old horns. It's got good guts, which I need, and it's got that warmth that I really need. I think it's a good match to my Buescher. Every bit as inspiring to play. And if I fix it up and try to sell it, I'm likely to lose my ass on this one so that is a plus!!

One thing I'm really starting to like is the high register. On my Buescher it's a chameleon. I can get a close approximation of a wooden flute up there. That's difficult to achieve on my Conn. It's easy on this Holton. Of course some folks are like: "well why would you want that? My sax needs to sound like a sax!!!" to which I say thank God I'm not you and you're not me. We all like different things. The sax is one of the most flexible instruments in this world. I've gotten human voice tones from my Buescher, and of course, when I want to sound like a sax I do, it is after all, a sax right?

One wonders why Holton saxes never caught on the way the "big 4" did. Was it advertising? Or lack of hype? Or was it what Buffet did which was make the best clarinets in the world and let Selmer make the best saxes. Holton made superior trombones and other brass instruments already so why do too much? Really, that makes total sense to me. But I'm glad they did. It makes the world of old saxophones that much more diverse and interesting.

JB