Buescher True Tone Saxophones

"True Tone" was the brand name of the first line of saxophones produced by the Buescher Band Instrument Company between 1905 and 1932. The name was stamped into the back of the instrument below the thumb rest, combined with a stylised tuning fork logo. The instruments were made in the company's factory in Elkhart, Indiana.

True Tone wasn't really a brand name. By the turn of the past century they were a mix and match of tuning pitch, A=446 (high pitch) A=440 (low pitch) A=438 on older horns... A number of musicians, music institutions and instrument makers begun to realize the need of a standard pitch, "one for all" throughout the world. Ferdinand August "Gus" Buescher started to make his instruments available in both commonly accepted pitches (high and low) but sometime around high 1890s and mid 1900s he made a decision about what pitch system should be the one. He started to label his horns (which included clarinets, and the whole brass family) TRUE-TONE. This stamp is never present on High Pitch horns (he made very few HP horns and I've never seen one Buescher's in HP made past 1910) and it's there even when horns start to have different (as in real) model names: Aristocrat, 400's, and such. Around 1938 or so the True Tone logo gets redesigned (stylized letering, loses the pitchfork, triangle and bell) and you find it in his entire production from the early 1900s to the Selmer bought out era in 1963~5

Why the early horns stuck with the True Tone model name? because many other makes were advertising fancy names, like "Wonder" "Handcraft" and such, and in newspaper ads and such, Buescher always presented his instruments with the True Tone speech. The horns are clearly branded THE BUESCHER - Made in Elkhart, IND (some will say USA and some don't)

Models available were:

• Sopranino (straight) in E♭
• Straight Soprano in C (one octave above C-Melody)
• Straight soprano in B♭
• Curved soprano in B♭
• "Tipped Bell" Soprano in B♭ (very short serial lifespan, around 205XXX to 220XXX)
• Alto in E♭
• Straight Alto in E♭ (very short serial lifespan, around 205XXX to 220XXX)
• "Melody" tenor in C ("C-melody")
• Tenor in B♭
• Baritone in E♭
• Bass in B♭

Finishes available were:

• bare brass
• silver plated (satin body, bright keys and accents)
• silver plated body (satin) with gold plated keys
• gold plate (satin body, bright keys and accents)
• thick quadruple gold plate, all hand burnished (shiny)
• Same as above but engraved from the underside of the bell rim to the neck, with Ivory rollers.

History of changes to the True Tone model

• Bare brass and silver-plated versions were manufactured in roughly equal numbers, though a few models were silver-plated and then coated with burnished gold.
• Early True Tones had a range up to High E♭.
• In 1921, Buescher patented a new invention called the "Snap-On Pad". This innovation is important as it is considered the first real "resonator". Pads are snapped into the keys with metal discs that secure their positions.
• Until around production number 190XXX, True Tones had circular G♯ keys with a mother-of-pearl insert i.e. they look similar to key-covers on the main body of a saxophone. However, from serial numbers 190XXX through to 270XXX, the G♯ key was crescent-shaped with a roller.
• Around the introduction of the crescent-shaped G♯ key, the alternate-F key (front-F key) became standard. Most instruments made before that time do not have the alternate-F key, although some may have been fitted with one, and the front F mechanism was offered as optional by the factory. There's also many horns that, fully factory refurbished years later, will have the crescent, the snaps, the front F mechanism, some even will have norton springs retrofit.
• True Tones typically have drawn tone holes with parallel (straight) sides, but there was a period in which you could choose to get your horn made with thick beveled soldered on tone holes. You could get either drawn or soldered on tone holes. They didn't continue with the soldered on holes past the '20s. Reportedly this was one of the grudges that Gus had with the board of is company, they didn't allow him to offer that anymore. The reasons were that it cost way much to manufacture, produced less consistent results and had a million of issues afterwards, maintenance wise. This led to versions of Buescher stenciling Martin horns, but martin tone holes has a different bevel and thickness and the tubes (body parts) are clearly different.

==Neck styles== (Altos only!) There are multiple series of necks on the True Tone.

• #1
• #01
• #02 (sometimes written as two stars or two 'X's)
• #03

• General views on the quality of these different series are that #1 and #02 are viewed unfavorably, while #01 and #03 are thought to have the best intonation and altissimo, respectively.