King
Made by H.N. White.
Showing all 11 results
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King Alto Saxophone Original Gold Plate Old Pads Beautiful Engraving 105999
$ 1,200 -
King Original Gold Plate Soprano Saxophone Beautiful Engraving 56362
$ 1,500This is an original gold plated King soprano from about 1922. The engraving is exquisite, as it usually is on gold plated King saxophones, and the horn itself is in very good physical condition. Keyed to high Eb, it currently plays ok on old pads, and the tone is very warm and pleasant. As is typical with sopranos of this age, the intonation is pretty flexible, but given a good ear and voicing it is entirely possible to play in tune- just don’t expect this to do the job for you like a modern Yamaha or Yanagisawa! The trade-off is, as it usually is in my experience, richness of tone for flexibility of intonation, although a large chamber soprano mouthpiece (like a vintage Buescher) will make the job a lot easier. I was playtesting this on a modern Yanagisawa piece though and enjoyed it quite a bit, without any notable intonational problems for me personally. This is from a collection and has old pads. But just the gold plate is worth the entire price of the horn. It’s a super deal. You could easily find this priced double somewhere else. Includes the nice Buescher soprano mouthpiece in the photos!
The original case for this instrument is in good condition and fits it very well.
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King SilverSonic Super 20 Tenor Saxophone Original Lacquer Fresh Overhaul! 418944
$ 6,000 -
King Silversonic Tenor Excellent Condition Original Lacquer Silver Neck + Bell + Treypack 448262
$ 5,350 -
King Soprano Saxophone Gold Plate Fresh Overhaul Amazing! 99847
$ 3,600Just freshly overhauled!! This got a full restoration, so it’s back to like new mechanical condition.This is the vintage soprano you should get!
This amazing gold plated King soprano saxophone will blow the walls down. It is in excellent condition, with nearly all the original gold plate intact. It has just received a full overhaul and restoration, which is not a small job on a 90 year old instrument. It is now back in like-new playing condition and ready to make music for many many years to come.
King sopranos are rare, and were only made in low pitch (regular concert pitch). They tune nicely, and have a big, warm, medium-focused tone that is less polite sounding than a Buescher, and really fills a room with ease. This example in gold plate and in such amazingly good condition is extremely rare. The great depression in 1929 spelled the end of most of the saxophone market, and marked the end of most makers building sopranos in any kind of quantities. So it’s not surprising that you don’t see a King soprano later than this serial. This is one of the very last ones made, and the latest serial I have seen. The later the better is my motto on vintage sopranos generally speaking, so getting a late one also in gold plate is really exceptional.
Only one available!
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King Super 20 Alto Full Pearls 1952 Fresh Overhaul 328xxx Outstanding
$ 5,150King altos are the best altos ever, full stop.
This one has original lacquer and looks good in a played in way, with the only past repair being a resoldered low C key guard. It just got a full, fresh, high-end overhaul, done by the highly-skilled Jan Olsen (Norway). This means it got about 30 hours of painstaking labor done to make the mechanism all factory fresh, and to replace everything that can be replaced so that it is back to new playing condition and pad wise. It now performs great and will be ready to go for many many years to come with only regular maintenance needed.
This King Super 20 alto is from just about the most desirable year, 1952, which is the same version and serial of Super 20 that Cannonball Adderley played on Kind of Blue and Somethin’ Else. It is in great shape, with no serious past repairs at all. This is the ‘Series II’ which has the best combination of beauty, features, and key work of all of the Super 20 altos. You really can get the Cannonball Adderley vibe going on one of these (with lots of practice) better than almost anything else. Cannonball played almost exactly this serial alto on Kind of Blue. This plus a Meyer 5 or Ted Klum NY Model plus a soft reed and lots of guts is what you need for what I consider to be the benchmark for good alto sound.
Why do I say that Super 20’s like this are the best altos ever? The overall combination of tone, beauty, and ergonomics. For me, great tone that you get from these full pearls Super 20’s is pretty hard to beat. It’s warm, full, rich, and projecting, but without any hint of shrillness or thinness. Cannonball’s tone, I always think of as a tenor saxophone reincarnated in the body of an alto, and that’s pretty much what a Super 20 alto like this allows. It feels like the tone is coming from a bigger, deeper instrument, but in the alto register, which is really remarkable. You can of course do a million other things with it. Check Francois Carrier’s music for another take on Super 20 tone (also same serial as this). The Super 20 is going to keep getting more and more desirable, and harder and harder to find. They’re just fantastic, and they are way rarer than Mark VI’s or any other top notch vintage or modern alto.
This horn is priced to MOVE. Once you figure in the overhaul, it’s absurdly cheap. Particularly for the tone you get. Someone should grab it now and not look back. You never need to ‘upgrade’ from this. If you don’t love it, send it back. I take returns.
Just for fun, here’s Cannonball on his Series II Super 20 playing one of his classic ballads, Dancin’ in the Dark.
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King Super 20 Alto Saxophone 1953 Full Pearls Original Lacquer
$ 5,500 -
King Super 20 Tenor Saxophone 1957 Near Mint Original Lacquer Overhauled!
$ 5,950Holy cow! This is the nicest example of a ’57 King Super 20 that I have had the pleasure of selling. It just got a complete overhaul! It was original pads 63 years old, when I got it, and now it’s totally fresh, clean, and completely restored. It’s awesome!
The tone of these horns is just to die for. Powerful, resonant, very loud when pushed (it goes to 11). The solid silver double socket neck gives you extra focus, and a dark core with lots of overtones. The horn overall is bright and projecting, but in a way that stays fat, like only American saxophones can. Ideal for either cutting through a band, or playing the most gorgeous ballads, this is one of my favorite saxophonse of all time.
This tenor has no damage, no dents or dings, and almost all its original lacquer. The solid silver neck even looks odd to King fanatics like me because it still has its original gold lacquer over the silver, which you hardly ever see. There’s some scratching on the back of the body tube from normal use, and a couple of tiny, nearly invisible dings I got removed from the bow, but you’d never notice anyway. It’s as nice as you will ever find. And priced to sell!
The best demo of a “Series III” Super 20 that I know of can be found here. It’s one of the only cases that I have found where I heard a demo and what I consider the essence of the tone of the horn itself is front and center on display (as opposed to the mouthpiece, the player, or a bunch of other distracting noise. Listen and enjoy! This is the same horn as in the demo, just made a year or two later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBoeWeRyy-o
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King Super 20 Tenor Saxophone 1968 Original Lacquer 439538 Great Deal!
$ 2,350Nice, clean original lacquer King Super 20 tenor saxophone from 1968. This is an early Eastlake tenor, which means it is just about the best horn for your money that you can get in a Super 20. It’s priced to SELL! Price just lowered March 2020. The pads are old, so plan on a repad, and you will have a monster tenor that blows the walls down for a bargain price!!
Only one available!
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King Zephyr Tenor Saxophone Original Silver Plate Excellent Condition 202108
$ 1,950 -
Powell Silver Eagle SE10 Alto One of 18 Made – all options solid silver +Matt Stohrer Overhau
$ 12,000For your viewing pleasure, this is one of the 18 Powell Silver Eagle saxophones made. Powell conceived of an ambitious project to bring back an American-made saxophone of the highest quality. Inspired by the Super 20 SilverSonic, the Silver Eagle reproduces the bore while adding solid silver soldered tone holes and modern keywork. Powell sadly ended their project after making only 18 saxophones, despite high demand, due to the high cost of production. This horn plays like a good super 20 but a little more evenly, and has been completely overhauled by Matt Stohrer. This is the ultimate collectible among modern saxophones, and it is also a burning player. Asking price is just what these cost new, plus a little extra since it got a $1500 overhaul on top of that! It’s not even inflated for the collectibility value, which is probably not smart of me, but there it is. If you want to discuss all the details of this project, I can put you in touch with the people who built it. These were most definitely a new saxophone bore and neck design, inspired by the best King Super 20 SilverSonic altos, both according to them and according to the folks who bought the tooling and mandrels when the project ended. The keywork is modified from tooling bought from B&S, which accounts for the pinky table that sticks out farther than it would on something like a Yamaha.
There is most certainly only one available. This one has all the possible factory options, which only a subset of Powell Silver Eagles had – including the solid silver tone holes and even cryo treatment. Of the 18 saxophones built, I know at least a couple of them were brass bell, and some others lacked other of these features. This is one of the ones with everything, which makes it even more collectible. Includes the original accessories, case, and paperwork.
Just for fun, here’s Matt Stohrer’s repairman’s overview from when he overhauled it.