Hawkes & Son XX Century 1920's - Silver Plated

Beautifully engraved XX Century Hawkes and Son fully restored with brand new Pisoni pads.

Low pitch markings on saxophone and crook and tested as such.

I restore vintage saxophones as a hobby. I don’t do this for income, I enjoy the process and so once restored I am generally only looking to get the money back I have spent.

I have to say I have a love hate relationship with this sax. It is one of the first saxophones I bought to restore after practicing on junk. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time on her as I refuse to be beaten and to this day I’m still not sure who has won!

That’s an over exaggeration as she plays just fine (see the video if you’re on eBay or request it if you’re on reverb), but the modern pads I’ve installed are probably a little too thick compared to the set I took out, and because the rolled tone holes can’t be adjusted the pads will need some time and playing to seal better.

She just needs a little extra voicing, and a harder key press then normal to get the lower notes, but this does seem to improve greatly after 5 minutes of playing. Again I’m painting a poorer picture than reality as a lot of saxophones, especially vintage ones need warming to get their best, this one just feels like she barely plays when cold!

I bought this Hawkes and Son from eBay and it was in pretty bad shape.

Initial faults:

• Very dirty and tarnished
• Barely played, all pads were shot.
• Various dents
• The bell stay was broken and someone had attempted to superglue it.
• The corks were very old

Remedies:

• Stripped all keys
• Full clean inside and out, and polish
• Brand new Pisoni Premium Deluxe pads with brown resonators. There are small leaks which require a firmer key press to seal and I would hope this would improve over time as she is played and the pads shrink slightly (as they do). She does however play well after some warm up as evidenced by the video.
• Professional brass technician cleaned up and soldered the stay, and removed most of the dents he could.
• Recorked the crook.
• Stripped and applied fresh cork, regulated the stacks.

My costs:

• Saxophone bought for £300
• Full set of Pisoni pads: £95
• Cork: £7
• Dent removal and stay soldering: £75

I’ve probably spent 30 hours on it to date.

Priced at £495. Grab yourself a bargain!

General notes:

The horn has a couple of marks around the bell as seen in the photos, I assume from a stand or similar. Aside from this it is in beautiful condition.

It looks like the octave key on the crook has been resoldered at some point. It’s not the best job I’ve seen but it works just fine.

After the above she now looks and plays beautifully, please see the video.

Comes with a more modern case which is in good condition and functional.

Stand, harness and mouthpiece is not included. Just the saxophone crook and case.

Play tests welcomed (and encouraged!).

Please see the photos and video.